Haunted Legacies: Season 1
by DragonShadow
Summary: Set after Til Death Do Us Part, the story continues with Danny's life and the trials of love and danger that lie ahead.
1. Hope

Author's Notes: Seeing "Til Death Do Us Part" end left me a bit empty. I find I still have juice left and ideas to go through for the aftermath of that story. So here's more! A couple points though

1: This will be a weekly series. Some parts will be short, some will be long, but always, ALWAYS updated on Friday, even if it's with nothing more than a one-page vignette.

2: This is an open-ended project, which means I have no idea how long it will ultimately become. It could go on for quite some time.

3: Reviews are always welcome, constructive or otherwise. Just because I don't respond to it all doesn't mean it's not greatly appreciated. I just have a fear of social interaction that keeps me from communicating directly with a lot of people.

And so, without further ado...

Haunted Legacies Episode 01: Hope

The sound of locker doors slamming open and closed was accompanied by the murmurs and mumbles of the girls getting dressed in their shorts and tank tops for the afternoon's P.E. class. The atmosphere was amiable and friendly as they chatted among themselves about test scores or various gossip that was circulating around the school. Sam had long since trained herself to tune it out, so she didn't worry about it until she heard a couple of particular voices from the other side of her locker.

"Oh my gosh! You're not going to believe what I just heard!" A voice exclaimed in excitement. It sounded like Star, one of the girls who followed Paulina around obsessively like her life depended on it.

"Was it something about Dash?" One of the other girls chimed in with a pathetically wistful sigh. "Tell me he's confessed his love for me at last!"

"No, even better. You all know Jazz Fenton, right?" Star asked. Sam looked up from her locker, listening intently now.

"Who doesn't?" Paulina's sharp voice scoffed. "She's only the SECOND most popular girl in school."

"Hasn't been in class lately, though." Another girl commented.

"Right, she's been gone for the last two months. I just heard someone saw her down at the store the other day. And she's pregnant!" Star's voice cracked in excitement. Her revelation was met with gasps of shock and surprise from the other girls.

"You're kidding!" Paulina let out an incredulous laugh. "Miss Goody-Two-Shoes-Smarty-Pants Fenton got herself knocked up? Guess with all those books she buries herself in she's never bothered to pick up one about Sex Ed." The girls all burst into uproarious laughs and giggles.

"I wonder who the father is." One of the girls asked.

"I bet it's Mr. Lancer." Star suggested with a laugh. The other girls all "ewe"'ed in unison, then started laughing even louder than before. "The girl really does LOVE her education."

"Yeah, she's REAL educated now." Paulina cackled.

The laughter died down a bit when the sound of a whistle echoed through the locker room, signaling that it was almost time for class to begin. The other girls all began filing out of the locker room, and as the voices on the other side of the lockers faded into the distance Sam shook her head, realizing she hadn't moved since their conversation began. Looking down at her hands, Sam discovered one of her test papers so crushed in her palms that it would take a week of pressing to flatten it out again.

Sam tossed the paper into the locker and finished pulling on her shorts and tank top so she could jog out into the gymnasium to join the other girls in the class. As she moved up to join the crowd she spotted Paulina and her cronies standing off to one side, still snickering amongst themselves while their P.E. teacher ran through a list of the day's activities.

Sam ignored him, glaring at Paulina and her lackeys. It had been almost nine months to the day since the Reaper had left and the Ghost Zone vanished with him. It was also nine months since Jazz had gotten pregnant Nobody knew it was Vlad's, of course. That was a secret shared only by herself, Danny, and Jazz. Jazz wouldn't even let anyone know that it wasn't her decision to have sex. She was under Vlad's control, and in no position to say no. But instead she let these gossiping harpies run their mouths. If they went through what Jazz had gone through they would probably be huddled in bed crying for mommy.

"Samantha Manson!" Sam was snapped back to attention by her P.E. teacher standing over her. "Am I boring you, Miss Manson?"

"No, sir." Sam shook her head.

"Then please take your place with the rest of the class on the Dodgeball Court." The teacher gestured to the middle of the gym where the other girls were waiting. "Blue team, if you would." Sam nodded and jogged over to join her teammates, taking a position near the front. "Begin."

Sam thought she was fairly good at sports thanks to her vegetarian diet. She had energy to spare and made sure she got more than enough exercise in a normal day to keep that energy level high. The fact that she was so thin made her a very narrow target, which also came in handy in a game like this. She dodged the balls like a pro, though she didn't bother to catch any or throw them back until she caught sight of Paulina when the crowds began to thin.

Sam danced around the balls flying around her, then zeroed in on one and jumped into its way, grabbing it in both arms against her stomach. The blow of the whistle sent its thrower trudging off of the field, while Sam held the ball up in both hands, narrowing her eyes in concentration. In a moment she tossed the ball into the air with one hand and brought back one leg to kick the ball across the line as hard as she could.

Paulina's shriek of surprise right before the ball slammed into her face sent her teammates scrambling out of the way in a panic. The ball rebounded off of her so hard it nearly touched the ceiling before coming back down to bounce away across the floor, forgotten.

"Are you alright!?" Their P.E. coach rushed up to check on her, kneeling down on the floor. Paulina was lying flat on her back, clutching her nose with both hands and kicking at the polished gymnasium floor as if she was choking to death.

Sam jogged over to them, but stopped when she noticed Paulina glaring at her over the fingers that covered her nose and mouth. "Oops." Sam said with a smirk and not much enthusiasm. Her smirk faded when the coach gestured for Star to carry Paulina to the nurse's office while he stood and turned to face Sam with a stern glare. "I said oops." Sam smiled nervously.

"Principal's office, Miss Manson." The coach told her.

Sam sighed and turned to leave. "Yeah, yeah, I know the way." Sam waved him off as she left through the gymnasium's double-doors. She'd walked this path frequently the last few weeks. She hated listening to these harpies laughing at Jazz and mocking her as word of her pregnancy spread. She didn't believe for a second any of them were pure virgin flowers anyway; especially little miss popularity, Paulina.

She walked into the principal's office to find her sitting behind her desk, clicking through something on the computer monitor in front of her. She looked up when Sam entered, peering at her over the rim of her glasses. With a sigh she gestured to the seat in front of the desk, which Sam obediently took.

"This is starting to become a problem." The principal told her simply.

"I'm not the one with the problem." Sam retorted. "Maybe if everyone else wasn't so immature, they wouldn't piss me off so much."

"What did you do this time?" The Principal asked.

"Dodgeball to the face. You should've seen it; the ball nearly ricocheted into the ceiling. It was sooo cool!"

"Enough." The principal removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes wearily with one hand. "This can't continue Sam. I know you think you're defending Jasmine, but you're only making trouble for yourself."

"Maybe if you policy-makers would make a policy that doesn't allow the chattering harpies to spout their ignorance, I wouldn't have to take matters into my own hands."

"Talking doesn't hurt you or Jasmine." The Principal told her for the eighteenth time.

"They're saying she's a slut!" Sam leaned forward and clamped her hands onto the front of the desk. "That she's been sleeping around! And it's not true! It's defamation of character and I want justice!"

"What is the truth, Samantha?" The Principal asked smoothly. Sam balked at that, biting her lip. "Because nobody seems to be able to give a clear answer about who the child's father is or how it came to be. Already several boys around school are claiming they could be the child's father."

"What!? Who!?" Sam demanded angrily.

"That's not important. I want to help you, but we need the facts before that can happen." The Principal slipped her glasses back onto her nose, staring at Sam sternly. "Now I'll ask nicely. Do you have anything to tell me, Miss Manson?"

Sam stared at her for a moment, then crossed her arms over her chest and sank back into her seat. "No, sir."

"Then I'm afraid we're going to have to start taking this seriously." The Principal stood up and pulled a sheet of paper off of her desk. She strode around the desk to hold it out to Sam, who took it without looking at her. "You're being suspended for the time being, until we can arrange a meeting with your parents to discuss what to do about this." Sam groaned and rolled her eyes. "If you won't cooperate with us, we'll have to find some way to get through to you."

"Fantastic." Sam stood and turned to leave, crumbling the paper up in one fist and shoving it into a hidden pocket in her skirt. She left without another word, closing the office door behind her harshly before turning to get her things out of her locker, then make her way to the exit. It was a nice day outside, she supposed. She'd begun to notice things like that ever since the Reaper incident. She'd noticed many things since then that she never gave thought to before.

Her parents were going to go psycho when they learned she'd been suspended from school. She wanted to delay that moment for as long as possible, and her parents wouldn't expect her home yet. So she turned away from her house and made her way down the sidewalk toward the massive Fenton Works building where Danny lived with his family. She approached the door and pushed it open nonchalantly. She didn't officially live here, but with all the time she spent here she might as well be a Fenton. She spent as little time at home as possible, especially since her school troubles had started.

The living room was quiet, but she could hear the sound of pen on paper in the kitchen, accompanied by a focused mumbling sound. Sam closed the front door securely behind her and moved into the kitchen, where she found Jazz scribbling notes on a pile of papers in front of her. They were full of math problems and essays of varying lengths, part of the 'mental exercise' she used to keep her mind sharp while out of school.

"You know, most people would just take the vacation." Sam quipped with a half-smile for the hundredth time. Jazz looked up from the table, then down at her watch.

"You're out of school early again." Jazz looked over at her. "Got sent home?"

"Oh no, it's better this time. I got suspended." Sam dropped her book bag on the seat at the head of the table and plopped down beside Jazz.

"Sam..." Jazz sighed in exasperation.

"Why won't you just tell people you were... were... abused?" Sam knew Jazz hated using the R word to describe what happened, though they both knew it was accurate.

"If I did that, then they would expect me to say who did it. If I told them that, they would ask how it happened, and that would lead to even more uncomfortable questions that it's just better not to answer." Jazz replied calmly.

"But they think you've been sleeping around. There are boys claiming they've slept with you."

"So?" Jazz shrugged. "When I get back I'll set the record straight, and if they don't believe me, they're only deluding themselves. They're just displaying their ignorance for the world to see, it doesn't effect me."

"It's just not fair." Sam shook her head.

"If the world was fair I wouldn't have gained 30 pounds over the last nine months." Jazz smirked and leaned back in her chair. "Come on, I think we could both use a pick-me-up. My mom just picked up a copy of Pirates of the Caribbean 2."

"Sure." Sam nodded and stood from her seat, waiting patiently while Jazz stood with some difficulty. Her bulging belly made it more difficult than she was used to, and when she finally did stand up she had to lean back to counterbalance the added weight.

"I swear this kid is going to hit puberty before she decides to come out." Jazz huffed irritably, pushing her chair back under the table.

"Hey, it's almost over. Could be any day now." Sam reminded her.

"How come you didn't get pregnant? I know you and Danny did it too. Probably have since then." Jazz asked.

"Yeah we did, got lucky I guess, and no we haven't." Sam smirked. "It was a heat of the moment thing. We thought Danny was going to die the next day. You know I love him and all, but that is a big risk I can't really afford to take so young."

"Wow. Good for you." Jazz smiled. "Happy to see I managed to hammer some sense into you guys after the first time." Jazz turned to haul her belly into the living room, where she moved up to pop the DVD into the player before letting herself fall back onto the thickly cushioned sofa. "Could you get me a drink, please?"

"Sure." Sam nodded and went into the kitchen to grab a couple of sodas. She handed Jazz one upon her return and plopped down on the other side of the couch with the second, leaning against the armrest and popping it open comfortably. They watched the opening titles roll before Sam grinned evilly and spoke again. "Doesn't mean we haven't messed around a couple times a day."

Jazz nearly spit out her soda in surprise, reaching up to put a hand over her mouth while Sam started laughing. "Oh, you are so evil." Jazz accused. "You were just waiting for me to take a drink, weren't you?"

"Me? Oh goodness no." Sam cackled.

"Are you serious though?" Jazz asked. Sam nodded. "I'm kind of shocked. Usually after nine months the 'fiery passion' phase of the relationship ends and the 'friendly cool down' phase is well underway."

"What can I say? He still know how to-" Sam began.

"Stop right there. I want to hear nothing. Just don't take any big risks and you can do whatever it is you guys do. Now silence please. Captain Jack Sparrow is talking." Jazz said. Sam snickered, but fell silent and turned to watch the movie with only mild interest.

It was another hour before the front door opened behind them and Daniel Fenton entered the building, lugging his backpack over one shoulder. He didn't look too happy to see Sam already there.

"Sent home again." Danny stated.

"Better. Suspended. And you can save the speeches, Jazz got to me first." Sam stood up from the couch and went to greet him with a warm hug. "I assume there are many rumors flying around school."

"Everything from kicking a dodge ball the speed of light to firing a cannonball out of your arm. That must have been some impact. Paulina never showed up for her last class." Danny said.

"The ricochet almost hit the ceiling." Sam replied innocently.

"Sam..." Danny sighed.

"I told you to save the speeches. Jazz is better at them anyway." Sam flicked him in the nose and looked over at the clock hanging on the nearby wall. "Well, my mom will be expecting me home soon. If I don't get back that'll be another strike against me. I think they're already on the verge of shipping me off to boot camp or something."

"Want me to walk you home?" Danny offered.

"Probably not a good idea. If my parents see me with you they might try to blame you for corrupting me." Sam smirked. "I'll call you later, let you know what year they'll let me out of whatever hole they bury me in."

"Well, don't let them bury you too deep. I prefer to see you in the sunlight at least once in a while." Danny smiled.

"And you're worth coming into the sunlight for." Sam leaned in to kiss him lightly on the lips, wrapping her arms around his neck. She kissed him a couple more times before pulling back and letting her arms fall from around his neck. "I'll see you soon. Count on it." Sam pulled away from him with a wink and whirled in a slight circle before walking out of the house, turning to head down the sidewalk toward her mansion.

The damage to her old house had been so extensive they'd had to simply remove the rubble and build a brand new one. Crews had worked around the clock for three months to get it finished, and Sam hated it. It was so tacky compared to the rest of the houses on the block. She preferred to keep a low profile, but it was difficult when she was living in a miniature castle, complete with watchtowers stationed in each yard.

She approached the large wooden doors on the front of the building and pushed them open, stepping inside the warmly decorated living room that smelled and sounded like the gently babbling brook that flowed into the room from the second floor and down into the ground. It was a soothing sound, but it couldn't possibly hope to soothe Sam with her mother standing in the middle of the living room, red-faced and furious beyond belief.

"Phone call?" Sam asked.

"Phone call." Her mother nodded. "Where have you been? You were dismissed from class almost two hours ago."

"I've been talking with Jazz." Sam replied truthfully.

"That Fenton girl? The one who got herself knocked up? Yeah, a real good influence SHE'LL be." Her mother shook her head. Sam narrowed her eyes in anger, but bit her tongue to keep from lashing back. "Honestly, that entire family is nothing but trouble. We've tolerated you hanging out with them up until now out of respect, but it may be time we put our foot down."

"And do what? Keep me from seeing any of them?" Sam demanded.

"Precisely. You only started causing this trouble since you hooked up with that Fenton boy and that Fenton girl started sleeping around. I'm putting my foot down right now. You are never to see them again."

"That is not happening." Sam retorted.

"As long as you live in this house, it is happening. It's for your own good." Her mother explained. Sam huffed and rolled her eyes, walking past her mother to head into the kitchen. "Where are you going?"

"I'm calling Danny." Sam plucked the telephone headset from the wall, speaking into the speaker in front of her lips. "Danny Fenton." She heard the familiar dial tone echo through the speakers.

"Hey, put that away this instant." Her mother tried to pluck the headset off her head, but Sam dodged under her arms and grabbed the headset in both hands, moving quickly through the kitchen away from her mother. "I said give it here!" Her mother grabbed again, this time managing to grab the microphone.

"Let go!" Sam shouted back angrily, her grip tightening on the headset while her mother tried to pull it away. "I MEAN it! Let go!"

"Give me the phone, Sam!" Her mother shouted back, yanking the headset hard enough to pull Sam's entire body sideways towards her. Sam tried to jerk away from her, dislodging the headset from her head though they were both still gripping it in a furious tug of war. "You don't need such bad influences in your life! You need to be a good, kind girl with traditional values!"

"I value Danny and Jazz, because they're better friends to me than you've ever been!" Sam growled loudly, yanking the headset away from her mother, though this only pulled her mother into her side, still gripping it tightly.

"I'm not your friend! I'm your mother! Your welfare comes before your opinion of me!" Her mother yanked on the headset, this time pulling Sam shoulder-first into her.

"You don't know what's best for me! You just want me to be like you!" Sam rammed her shoulder into her mother's side, grunting and pushing her up against the wall. Her mother, much to her surprise, began to push back, pushing Sam's back up against the massive table in the middle of the kitchen. Sam growled in anger and shoved back, kicking off of the table until her body weight shoved them both down to the kitchen floor.

The telephone headset clattered to the floor beside them, forgotten as they gripped and pulled at each other on the floor, trying to yank on clothing, hair, body parts, anything they could get their hands on. They rolled across the floor, each trying to pin the other as their fingernails began to dig scratches into each others' skin.

Suddenly the sound of the front door bursting open echoed through the house, and in no time Danny and Jack Fenton were in the kitchen, each trying to pull the two women away from each other.

"Sam, chill out! Sam!" Danny grabbed Sam around the shoulders from behind, struggling to hold onto her while she lashed out with her legs.

"Let go of me Danny! I mean it! Let go!" Sam shouted.

"What are you Fentons doing here?" Sam's mother demanded, panting and struggling against Jack's grip only until she realized the massive man had more than just jellyrolls hidden on his frame. "This doesn't concern any of you, get out of my house this instant!"

"Not our business? We come in here and find you fighting with your daughter and it's not our business?" Maddie entered the fray now that the two combatants were separated, standing between them and facing Mrs. Manson. "You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"You're not one to talk! With that hooligan of a son and tramp of a daughter, it's a wonder the state lets you keep your kids!" Mrs. Manson shouted back angrily.

"Why I never!" Maddie exclaimed in shock. "How dare you accuse Jasmine of-"

"It's as plain as day! Just look at her! You don't get like that by being innocent!" Mrs. Manson replied. Jack began to yell objections, and even Danny got into the fray. It was a tangled mess of yells and accusations, threats of calling Child Protective Services and even a few threats of physical bodily harm all lost in the sea of angry screams and yells. Nobody noticed when Jazz made her way into the room, leaning against the doorframe and holding the bulge in her stomach with both hands.

"Mom." Jazz moved up to them slowly, pulling on the sleeve of her mother's jumpsuit with a worried look on her face. "I... I think my water just broke."

All the yells stopped at once and every head in the room whipped in her direction. There was a brief pause where everyone cast glances at everyone else, then the room exploded into motion again, this time with everyone trying to herd Jazz outside and into the Fenton RV while Maddie shouted above the commotion to give commands to those gathered there.

"Jack, hurry home and get the video camera! No, our home is in the other direction! Pamela! Find the shortest route to the Amity Park Hospital! Danny, Sam, get Jazz into the RV on the double! Jazz, keep breathing!"

"Um... will do." Jazz blinked. Then grunted and almost fell before Danny and Sam each caught one of her arms. "Aaaugh! Ooh..."

"Relax Jazz, you're going to be okay." Danny told her as he and Sam climbed into the back of the Fenton RV, sitting on either side of her on the bench.

"Remember those classes you went to. Deep breaths. In your nose, out your mouth, in, out." Sam said firmly, breathing with Jazz deeply in through her nose and out through her mouth. They heard the front doors of the RV slam open and shut in an instant before the engine roared to life. "In, out, and hold on!" Sam grabbed into Jazz, trying to hold her in place as the Fenton RV rocketed down the street. Danny grabbed the other side, struggling to get their seat belts in place despite the erratic movements.

The RV swayed this way and that, weaving through the streets of Amity Park while Danny, Sam and Jazz held on with all their might in the back seat. Jazz was also holding on to something else at the moment, her face growing more pained with each passing second as her breath deepened. Sam and Danny held her arms tightly for support, until at last the RV screeched to a stop while the hospital sign was visible through the windows.

The back door of the RV swung open and Maddie and Sam's mom Pamela swept into the RV, sweeping Jazz out of her seat and hauling her toward the hospital while Sam and Danny rushed to keep up with them. They followed the women only as far as the hotel lobby, where several nurses met them and turned to lead them into one of the back rooms in a hurry. It was only a few moments later that Jack rushed past them with a video camera clutched in one beefy hand, vanishing into the back.

Sam and Danny remained in the lobby, left behind by the furious whirlwind that had robbed them of their thoughts up until now. Their hands found each other and clasped for mutual comfort as they moved to sit down on some of the chairs set against the wall. Danny looked worried out of his mind, the fingers of his free hand tapping relentlessly against his knee while his eyes darted around the lobby at the slightest movement.

"You okay, Danny?" Sam asked softly. "You know Jazz will be fine."

"I'm fine. I know she'll be okay." Danny looked back with a slight smile. "Question is, are YOU okay? What happened back there?"

"It seems so stupid now." Sam admitted. "We got into that same old argument we have every so often. She tries to control something about me, I tell her to go away. I guess it just... got out of hand this time." Sam tried to look away from him, to conceal the scratches from her mother's fingernails. But Danny reached over with one hand and swept her hair out of the way, revealing them to him.

"Jazz could hear the yelling over the phone. That was why we came over." Danny told her.

"Sorry." Sam shook her head. "I just couldn't believe she of all people would accuse Jazz of being... well, you know. Jazz has been through so much, and I'm tired of people accusing her of being this horrible irresponsible person. Any lesser person probably would have gotten an abortion and pretended it never happened. Not Jazz. She had the strength to tell her parents she was pregnant, and carry it all the way through, knowing what people would start to think of her."

"She is a heck of a girl." Danny agreed with a nod and leaned back in his seat. "But you're avoiding the issue, Sam." Sam didn't look at him. "Has this happened before?"

"No, never." Sam shook her head. "I know you're probably thinking my mom's some horrible child-abuser now, but she's not. She's never hit me, she never even raises her voice." Sam stared down at the floor, her hands hanging limply from her lap. "She never does anything to hurt me." She raised one hand to her cheek, wincing as her finger touched a fresh scratch.

"Because I love you, Sam." Sam looked up in surprise when she heard her mother's voice. She was standing in front of her, a warm smile on her face and a tear running down her cheek. "I'm so sorry for what happened... you're right, it was such a stupid thing to let get as far as it did." She walked over and took a seat beside Sam, reaching out to clasp one of Sam's hands between both of hers. "I want you to be safe and happy... which is why I try to protect you from your own mistakes."

"It's not a mistake mom... I love Danny. That's no mistake and I'm not being stupid about some dumb puppy love. And Jazz... she's not what everyone thinks she is. She's a good person, and braver than I could ever be."

"And their parents?" Her mom asked with a slight smile.

"Crazy, but they mean well." Sam chuckled slightly through the tears that had begun to run down her cheeks. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes with the back of one hand while her mother wiped hers with a tissue from her purse. "I know you want me to be happy... but I can't be happy pretending to be YOU. Because I'm not, and I can't ever be. Please, please understand that."

"I know, sweetie." Pamela reached out to wrap Sam up in a tight hug. For the first time since she could remember, Sam returned it just as tightly. "But I just..." She sighed and looked at Danny for a moment before speaking again. "It doesn't seem like you need me."

"I do need you." Sam smiled slightly. "You pay for everything, after all." They both chuckled and pulled away from each other, each trying to wipe their eyes clear before the other could see them. They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before Sam took a deep breath. "So... how was Jazz when you left her? Is everything going to be okay?"

"They're in the delivery room right now." Sam's mother nodded, composing herself after their unusually touching mother/daughter moment. "But it sounded like there weren't any complications. They should be fine, we just have to wait for it to happen."

And so, Pam, Sam and Danny waited in the lobby for news of Jazz's impending birth. It had been a torturous nine months, but the five hours they waited there in the hospital seats might as well have been several years by comparison. Sam knew Danny was worried despite his nonchalant demeanor, thanks to the fact that his hand kept Sam's locked in a death-grip nearly the entire time. Her mother remained calm though, which kept the two youngsters calm. They'd never been through this before, but she was a parent. If she was calm, there was no reason for them to worry. They waited in tense silence until at last, Jack Fenton emerged from the hallway with a broad grin on his face.

"And we have a girl!" Jack announced as if he was introducing the president of the United States. Danny let out a long sigh while Pam stood more calmly. Sam took Danny's hand and gently patted the back of it with a reassuring smile, which he returned.

"Is it okay to go see them?" Sam's mother asked.

"Is it okay? You'd better come. She's really something to see." Jack had a broad, proud grin on his face. Pam looked back at the two teenagers, who stood up from the seats to follow her and Jack back into the long hallway and down several connecting corridors. They came to a stop outside of a room labeled 'Recovery Room 6', where Jack gripped the door and gestured for the others to keep quiet as he slowly pushed it open.

Jazz looked over at the door from the thin hospital bed in the middle of the room. She looked tired and worn, but there was a gentle smile on her face. In the crook of her arm, resting against her chest, was a tiny bundle of blankets with a baby's head poking out of the top. It was a pudgy little thing, like babies tended to be, but that didn't stop a smile from creeping across Sam's face when she saw it.

"Awww." Sam aww'ed as the four of them approached the bed. Maddie was sitting in a chair on the other side of Jazz, watching with a tender gaze. "She's so small." Sam gently poked a finger into the bundle of blankets.

"I just realized something." Danny said. "I don't think you ever decided on a name, Jazz. Kind of something you can't put off now that she's here." He smiled humorously.

"Hope." Jazz replied instantly. Everyone looked at her in surprise. "I'm going to name her Hope."

"Hope?" Maddie asked in surprise.

"I think it's perfect." Sam smiled slightly.

"Yeah." Danny rested a hand on his sister's shoulder, looking down at the small bundle in her arms. "Let's just make sure we keep Hope alive." He chuckled. Jazz looked up at him with a smile, then back down at the bundle that lay in her arms.

"I'm sorry to interrupt." A voice said from the door. Sam and the others looked back to see the doctor standing in the doorway. "But both the mother and the child need their rest. They'll be able to come home in the morning, I promise."

Danny looked down at Jazz, squeezing her shoulder once before stepping away from her. "We'll be here bright and early."

"Okay." Jazz smiled, then gently took her daughter's hand in two fingers and waved it at the door. "Say goodbye, Hope. We'll see them some more tomorrow."

Sam waved and turned to follow the others as they said their cheerful goodbyes, leaving the new mother alone in the room with her daughter. Sam and her mom followed the Fentons out to the parking lot, where they stopped in front of the Fenton RV.

"Do you want a ride home? We came in kind of a rush." Maddie offered.

"No, thank you. I think it's a nice evening to walk." Sam's mom replied. Sam looked at her in surprise. She was used to being driven places, the only time she walked was when she had to get something from the fridge, and even then she preferred to make Sam do it.

"Well, okay. Be careful on the way home." Maddie smiled, the earlier disputes and arguments apparently forgotten in the rush and jubilation of Hope's birth. Sam and Pam waved while the Fentons climbed into their RV and took off down the street, leaving the two Manson women standing alone in the parking lot. The sun was almost gone by now, but it looked like it was going to be a bright moon tonight.

"Well, come on Sam. Let's go home." Pam smiled and turned to walk down the sidewalk. Sam nodded and rushed to catch up with her, then slowed to pace her as they walked down the sidewalk toward their house. They walked on in silence for a little while until the sun had gone beyond the horizon and its golden red remains shone on the moon high overhead.

"It's a beautiful evening, isn't it?" Pam asked at last.

"Yeah, it is." Sam looked up at the golden moon overhead. "Mom?" Her mother looked over at her curiously. "I'm sorry for attacking you."

"Apology accepted." Her mother nodded. "Though I'm not the only one you should apologize to, judging from that phone call I received earlier."

"She knew the risks in Dodgeball." Sam muttered under her breath. When she noticed her mom's glare she raised her hands. "Okay, I'll try to talk to her soon."

"Good. Behave yourself with your classmates and everyone else." Pam said.

"I'll do my best." Sam smirked. "And in return, maybe you could just let me lead my own life from now on."

"Sam..." Pam sighed. "I just don't want to see you hurt yourself."

"And why are you so sure I will?" Sam demanded.

"Because I know I did when I was your age." Pam replied. Sam blinked and turned to stare at her in surprise. "He said all the right words, he did all the right things. And in the end, I was the one who got pregnant."

"What are you saying, mom?" Sam's voice shivered slightly. "I was an accident?"

"Not you, sweetie." Pam smiled back sadly. "Every girl in that position has a choice... and I made the wrong one." She looked away from Sam, up at the pale moon that shone down on them. "I sometimes wonder what your older brother would have been like..." She shook her head.

"Older... brother." Sam turned to face forward, unsure how to take this new information. Her mom was always trying to get her to be all pretty and happy and responsible. She'd never known what her mom was like when she was younger. "You mean..."

"Uh-huh." Pam nodded.

"I never knew." Sam put a hand to her head.

"If I had the choice to make again, I would have gone through with it and kept him as my son. But I guess I just wasn't as strong as some girls." She looked down at Sam. "I guess it's been so long I forgot what it's like to be young. But Jasmine... to go through it at her young age willingly and be so calm is remarkable."

"She's a remarkable girl." Sam agreed with a nod. "And a good role model."

Pam chuckled. "Yes, I'd have to agree." They lapsed into silence for a little longer, until their mansion came into view in the distance.

"Well. Mother/daughter bonding moment. I never knew those things were real." Sam said with a smile. Her mother laughed.

"Maybe when we get home we can bond further over some ointment." Pam looked down at one of the deeper gashes Sam's nails had left on her arm.

Sam laughed and leaned against her mother's side, one arm slipping around her waist while her head rested against her shoulder. "It's a deal."

TO BE CONTINUED 


	2. Paulina's Wrath

Previously on "Haunted Legacies"

Sam, growing increasingly frustrated with her life and the peoples' belief that Jazz is an irresponsible slut, loses her cool and attacks Paulina during a dodgeball game. The latest in a long line of disturbances, this was the one that finally got Sam suspended from school. This caused a greater rift between Sam and her mom, but it's ultimately bridged through the miracle of childbirth and they become closer than ever before. Meanwhile, Jazz patiently awaits the birth of her baby daughter. At last, baby Hope is born and is ready to come home as the newest addition to the Fenton family.

Haunted Legacies Episode 02: Paulina's Wrath

The light bulb overhead swung back and forth gently, sending the light floating across the thinly cluttered room like an ominous signal. A mop sat in one corner with a bucket ready by its side, and water stains decorated the walls like a new, rather disgusting, fashion trend. She hated coming in here, but it was one of the few places she could go where she was guaranteed not to be overheard. She stood in front of a small gang of other girls, who were all looking deadly serious in the dim light.

"You all know what you have to do, right?" Paulina asked from the depths of the thick hooded sweatshirt she kept pulled up to conceal herself from the world.

"Yeah, but... isn't it a little extreme, Paulina?" Star asked.

"It's kinder than she deserves!" Paulina snapped back angrily. "What she did to me is totally unforgivable, and there will be retribution!" Paulina stomped up to Star, who gulped and began to sweat nervously. Or perhaps it was being trapped in a janitor's closet with five other girls that made it so hot. Paulina was feeling a bit sweaty too. "Are you trying to back out, Star?"

"No no, of course not! But this... it's so horrible." Star replied.

"Do you think THIS isn't!?" Paulina ripped the hood of her sweatshirt back. The other girls let out muted screams and gasps, and Star closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to look. Paulina pulled the hood over her face again when she was satisfied that they understood the situation. "We go forward with the plan as it is. We'll make her regret the day she dared to lay a hand on my perfectly flawless face." She glared at the other girls for a few moments before speaking again. "Okay, let's get out of here. I hate sweating and you girls are starting to get all smelly."

* * *

Despite her mother's best efforts to negotiate with the school board, they refused to lift Sam's suspension until a minimum of two weeks had passed. So Sam found herself with a lot of free time over the next week, which she mostly spent at the Fenton house helping Jazz take care of her daughter until the baby was old enough to be left with Maddie. She spent some time with her mom in the evenings, but she preferred to help Jazz, who became increasingly frustrated with the child who seemed to cry for any or no reason. She appreciated Sam's help, and Sam liked to think that she was like a second mother to Hope.

"You want anything to drink?" Sam called over her shoulder as she went into the kitchen.

"Water for me. And Tylenol." Jazz called back. Sam smirked, grabbed a couple of bottles of water out of the fridge along with two Tylenol from the cupboard. She walked back into the living room, where Jazz was feeding the baby. Her hair was a tangled mess and she had dark circles under her eyes, but she still had a twinkle in her eyes when she looked down at the child in her arms.

"Here you go." Sam set her water and medicine on the coffee table in front of the sofa, moving to sit beside her. They had a soft, soothing CD playing from the DVD player to try to keep the baby calm, and it seemed to be working for the moment. The baby was lying limp in her arms, sucking on the bottle without a care in the world, though her eyes were darting here and there around the room.

"Thanks." Jazz propped the bottle up against the baby's blankets and grabbed the Tylenol, popping them into her mouth and washing them down with the water. "Mmm. I've had a headache since yesterday."

"It goes away." Both of the girls looked when Maddie Fenton emerged from the basement, pulling her goggles and facemask off and wiping her forehead with a damp washcloth. She smiled over at them. "In a couple of years. Then it's replaced by a whole new kind of headache."

"Joy of joys." Jazz said sarcastically, though with a humorous smile.

"Hey Mrs. Fenton." Sam smiled. "What are you working on down there? It's been quiet."

"We're trying to get the Ghost Portal working." She sighed. "I don't know what the problem is. It's like it shut down one day and refuses to come back on." Sam and Jazz exchanged a glance. They knew why it wouldn't work anymore. There was no Ghost Zone left to connect to. Not that they could explain that to Maddie without giving away plenty of other things they wanted to keep secret.

"It's been a while. Maybe you should work on something else for a while." Sam suggested.

"Oh, we've made other things. Look." Maddie pulled a small tube out of her glove. "It's a tube that keeps your hands from getting sweaty when you're wearing gloves. We call it the Fenton Handryer"

"Wow... that's uh... that's awesome." Sam smiled.

"Yeah, really." Jazz agreed with more enthusiasm. "But maybe you could make something that doesn't have Fenton in its name."

Maddie chuckled. "That's silly. We can't call it the Manson hairdryer, we're Fentons." Sam and Jazz chuckled politely. "Now, what I really came up for was to ask what everyone wants for dinner tonight. Your father already voted for Barbeque chicken."

"Sounds fine to me." Jazz replied. Sam made a face.

"Are you staying for dinner Sam? I could pick up something else at the store." Maddie offered.

"No thanks, I don't want to be any trouble. My mom wanted to spend some quality 'bonding time' with me tonight anyway. Thanks for the offer though." She said. Maddie smiled and walked past them into the kitchen to wash up and begin dinner preparations. Glancing at the clock, Sam saw that it was after time for school to let out. Danny should be home any minute.

As she guessed, it was only a few more minutes before the front door open and Danny walked inside, lugging his book bag over one shoulder and dropping it to the floor as he closed the door behind him. "Hey Jazz. Hey Sam. How's the kid?"

"Finally asleep. So keep it down, will ya?" Jazz said in a hushed tone.

"Sorry." Danny lowered his voice and walked over to them. He spent a few moments looking down at the sleeping baby, then looked over at Sam, who had moved to the couch next to Jazz. "If you want, Sam, I was about to take one of my walks. If you, y'know, want to join me." He said.

"Sure. I'd like that." Sam smiled and stood up from the couch. "I'll be back in a little while, Jazz."

"Have fun." Jazz waved with one hand, watching from the couch since she still had Hope lying on her.

Sam approached Danny, took his hand, and turned to walk with him out of the house. They made their way down the sidewalk in the afternoon sun with a companionable air between them. Danny sometimes liked to take these walks over the last nine months. He didn't always ask Sam to join him, he sometimes just took off on his own without telling anybody where he was going. But Sam had gotten used to it. She knew despite his calm demeanor and happy attitude, he still had plenty of issues to struggle with.

The sight of an ornate iron fence came into view ahead of them, and as they moved closer they could see the cold gray slabs scattered across a grassy green landscape. Some were carved into ornate designs or sculptures, others were little more than a slab with writing on it. A gate that led into the field had a sign reading "Amity Park Cemetery" in ornate script.

They entered the cemetery and walked across the grass until they reached a headstone with the inscription 'Tucker Foley: Best Son, Best Friend'. Danny approached the foot of the grave, which was clearly marked with a ring of white flowers that his family had planted upon his burial. He got down on his knees while Sam stood back and watched, holding her hands down low and bowing her head in a solemn gesture.

Her eyes flicked around the cemetery suddenly. She swore she saw something moving around here. Probably just some other mourners, she reminded herself. Amity Park wasn't a very big city, everyone tended to know everyone else. Whenever someone died, it was a big deal for just about everyone.

After ten minutes Danny opened his eyes and stood up, wiping some blades of grass off of his knees. "I'm going to go do one more thing."

"You go. I'll wait here." Sam replied. Danny nodded and smiled gratefully before he turned to walk further into the cemetery.

Sam approached Tucker's grave and got down on her knees, putting a few fingers on the flower that swayed in the gentle afternoon breeze.

* * *

Danny moved up the hill upon which the cemetery was built, moving with a steady, purposeful stride. He reached the very top of the hill where some of the richest people in Amity Park had long ago reserved plots. One was a family plot, in which a line of tombstones were placed in descending order all with the same last night. But there was a gap where one man's name should have been, followed by a stone inscribed 'Valerie Grey: The Future Rests With Her'.

Danny got down on his knees in front of the grave, putting his hands in his lap and lowering his head to his chest. He remained that way, unthinking and unmoving for over ten minutes. He could feel a voice whispering in his mind, but he quickly shut it away. Locking it back behind the door built of the memories of everyone he lost back then. They wouldn't want him to destroy. They would want him to live.

He raised his head slightly when he heard something from nearby. A soft rustling of cloth. He looked to the side to see a figure standing in front of another headstone near him. Its robes were so loose and thick he couldn't even tell if it was male or female. A hood was pulled up to conceal its head, the only part visible of its body was a tuft of light blonde hair that dangled out from under the hood.

Danny turned back to the grave, only lifting his head again when the figure spoke in a harsh, but definitely female voice. "Such a sad thing, isn't it? To see a life end and go nowhere."

"We don't know that." Danny replied. "They could be out there. Somewhere."

"Yes, they certainly could." The figure said. Danny looked away from the grave again, looking at the figure. She still hadn't moved to look at him. "All we need is the power to look. Isn't that right?"

"Power? Power doesn't do anything but cause trouble." Danny pushed himself up from the ground, brushing the grass off of his knees.

"The mystical forces of the universe are vast and untapped by most human hands. With it, we could know anything. Become anything." The figure said.

"What, you mean magic?" Danny had to laugh, shaking his head. "Who believes in magic in this day and age? Sorry, but I've gotta run." Danny waved off-handedly and turned to leave, but he stopped in his tracks when she spoke next.

"The same people who believe in ghosts, I would imagine." Danny didn't move or speak for a long time. Finally he turned around slowly, to find that the figure had turned to face him. He could see a pair of feminine lips from under the hood, framed by the blonde hair. "The same people who believe in demons. Demons who dwell deep inside of us, attacking our consciousness... and slowly consuming our very being."

"Who are you?" Danny asked guardedly.

"You have been touched by many forces, Daniel Fenton. Some benign, some not. And all of it has left a scar in your heart. Faint traces of your experiences... that can help us find something we need that rests here in Amity Park."

"And what are you looking for, exactly?" Danny asked.

"The stones with the power to control reality itself." The woman replied.

"The Reality Gems." Danny said. "You won't find them. I destroyed them." To his surprise, the woman chuckles.

"You cannot destroy them, child. They are connected to the power source of all existence. The power of all reality. They are still here, in Amity Park. And you can help me find them."

"Who says I want to?" Danny turned away from her. "Those things made a lot of trouble for me. That kind of power can't lead to anything good. Why would I help you find them?"

"Because if you help us, we can help you face the demon within you. Think about it, Danny Phantom." Danny blinked and whirled again, but where the woman had once stood was now bare and empty. Danny walked over to the spot, as if expecting to run into her, but she was simply gone. He cast one more suspicious glance around the windswept cemetery, then turned to walk back the way he came.

* * *

Sam leaned against the gate that led out of the cemetery, crossing her arms over her chest and looking back and forth across the street. Danny usually didn't take very long paying his respects, and she was starting to get a little worried about him. But she knew better than to interrupt whatever he was doing. He would come back when he was ready.

She sighed lightly, but gasped in surprise when someone suddenly grabbed her from the other side of the fence, dragging her back as a burlap sack was slung over her head. "Hey! What the-!? Let me go!" Sam struggled against the arms that held hers, but they were joined by another pair, each taking one of her arms and yanking them together where they were bound together with what felt like duct tape. They yanked her away from the cemetery entrance, dragging her across the grass. Sam stumbled over rocks and what she prayed weren't small headstones until finally the hands holding her arms came to a stop.

"Well well, Sam Manson. How fitting it is that we find Miss Goth herself hanging out in a cemetery." A snooty voice said. "I bet you're wondering who brought you here."

"Let go of me, Paulina." Sam demanded.

"How the f-?" Paulina began.

"You're not even disguising your voice." Sam reminded her. "Now seriously, let me go." Sam struggled to move her arms, but they were still tightly bound. She heard a pair of footsteps move up in front of her, and the sack was ripped off of her head. Paulina was standing in front of her, but she was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood pulled down low in front of her face. She looked over her shoulders to see Star and some other girl she didn't care to identify standing behind her.

"You're going to pay for what you did to me, Sam." Paulina said viciously.

"What I did to you? It was just a dodgeball." Sam replied.

"Just a dodgeball? That dodgeball did THIS!" Paulina ripped the hood of her sweatshirt back. Sam blinked, staring at her face. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with it.

"So... what am I looking at?" Sam asked.

"My nose! It's crooked to the left! You don't see it!?" Paulina demanded.

"Um..." Sam narrowed her eyes. "Okay, I think if I squint I can see something... but it's not a lot. Nobody would notice, really."

"It's flawed!" Paulina roared furiously. "Do you know how much plastic surgery it's going to take to make my face perfectly flawless again!?"

"As much as it took the first time?"

"Ooohhhh!" Paulina roared. "You and your smart mouth! Well, we'll see how smart your mouth is when we get through with you. Bring her!" Paulina whirled away from her and headed toward the far exit of the cemetery. Star and her helper dragged Sam along after her, pulling her across the grass despite her best efforts to wiggle free. They marched through the width of the cemetery and emerged out onto the sidewalk, where they headed toward a nearby building.

Sam looked up at it curiously, no longer bothering to struggle with her captors as they approached the modestly size apartment complex. It wasn't like they were dumb enough to do anything dangerous to her. Though the second she saw a whip anywhere in this building, she was so gone.

Paulina led the way up the steps to a small apartment on the second floor, which they entered. The room was dark, lit only by a circle of candles in the middle of what was otherwise a well-furnished living room. Illuminated by the candles was a dark red circle of something that looked like ketchup in the shape of a frowny face. Sam cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"Shouldn't that be a pentagram or something?" Sam asked.

"Please. If it works with a star, it should be a hundred times more effective with Mr. Angry." Paulina quipped back. Sam found herself unable to argue with that logic. "Now, into the cursed circle with her!" Paulina commanded. Star and her helper pushed Sam forward into the frowny face and kicked at the back of her knees until she kneeled down on the newspaper the face had been drawn on.

When Sam looked up again she saw three more girls standing on the other side of the candle circle, wearing thick brown robes that went down past their ankles. Sam turned around with some difficult to watch Paulina and the other girls don similar robes before moving to complete the circle around her.

"Now, Sam. You like playing with the dark forces of magic?" Paulina asked.

"Actually, I'm a Goth, you're thinking Wiccan." Sam corrected her. "I just read that stuff as a matter of general interest."

"Silence!" Paulina howled. "You will be cursed, Sam Manson! Cursed to never find love!"

"But I already-"

"NEVER find love! Because you are a loser!" Paulina shouted over her to silence her. Sam rolled her eyes and sat back on her heels with a sigh. Even if she did believe in black magic, this was so ridiculous there was no way these twits would get it right. She supposed she would just have to wait for them to finish this insane farce. She hoped it went quickly. She didn't want Danny to worry about her.

"Now I shall read the ancient rites from the Necronomicon... that's the book of the dead." Paulina grinned.

"Yeah, I know." Sam replied smugly. Paulina turned to a nearby coffee table decorated with pretty sparkling fairies and turned back to the candle-lit circle. Sam had to admit, the book she was holding looked pretty good. Its cover was thick and wrinkled, and the binding on the spine was made to look like a pair of demonic claws holding the cover together.

"Whoa, nice prop. Where did you get that?" Sam asked.

"You like it? My papa ordered it for me from overseas just for this occasion." Paulina grinned. "Because I'm his special little princess."

"Overseas huh? You really went all out." Sam shook her head. "Okay, I'm done. Go ahead and curse me with the powers of Satanic Evil, oh fairy princess."

"Thank you, I will." Paulina opened the book to a page she'd marked previously and cleared her throat, speaking in a loud commanding voice. "On Necronomicon, written in blood and bound in human fl-okay ewe. This is just gross."

"Pure concentrated evil usually is." Sam agreed.

"Hush, you!" Paulina cleared her throat again and started over. "Oh Necronomicon, written in human blood and bound in human flesh, may your powers stir on in the darkness that surrounds us. Bring to me the strength of the dark and of the master of darkness, the demon below! Emeris Unumbra, Emikara!" She stopped, looking around the quiet room.

"Oh! Oh no! I feel something!" Sam grunted in pain.

"What!? What!?" The girls around her exclaimed.

"Sympathy... for stupid... idiots!" Sam laughed.

"Oh forget this poetic justice stuff. Let's just go throw her in the pool with her hands and feet tied up." Paulina suggested.

"Wha-?" Sam blinked just before another piece of tape wrapped around her mouth to silence her. And it was as if moments later her body slammed into the surface of the water, her hands still tied behind her back and her ankles tied together with fresh new duct tape. Normally people could float pretty well on the surface until they could free themselves. But for the first time, Sam really regretted her sense of fashion, as her thick steel-toed boots dragged her down under the water like a pair of cement shoes.

Sam sank to the bottom of the pool, trying not to panic as her hands furiously tried to undo the duct tape around her wrists. Looking at the surface, she could see the shifting shapes of the other girls as they laughed and turned to leave.

"She'll be fine, they always are." She heard Paulina state. "Come on, let's get out of here. And forget this stupid thing." She dropped the Necronomicon to the ground and walked away from the pool, leaving Sam under the water struggling to get her hands undone.

Sam could feel her lungs starting to burn as she struggled. The tape was still pretty tight, despite the damage the water was doing to it. She couldn't work her hands free. She couldn't even slip her boots off, since her calves had been accidentally taped to the top of the boots. She couldn't believe it. After everything that happened, everything she'd been through, the idiocy of a couple of moronic teenage bimbos was what would finally do her in.

Her head jerked upward when she heard a splash, and a figure moved swiftly and gracefully toward her through the water. Sam couldn't make out who it was, her vision seemed to be blurring, but she didn't care too much. The figure swam to the bottom of the pool, sliced through the tape on her legs with a pocketknife, and grabbed Sam around the waist to yank her out of her boots and back up toward the surface.

Sam gasped for air the second her head broke the surface and her rescuer ripped the tape off of her mouth, going limp in the arms of her rescuer as she greedily sucked in as much air as she could. She was shivering and felt weak. How long had she been down there? She had no idea. It couldn't have been that long though.

"You okay Sam?" A female voice asked worriedly, holding Sam tightly against her chest while Sam's head rested against her shoulder.

Sam looked over at her rescuer, a confused look crossing her face. "Star? You?"

"It looked like something was wrong." Star replied. "Come on, we should get out of the water." She swam back toward the edge of the pool, dragging Sam along behind her until they were both safely on the edge of the pool. Sam plopped down on her stomach, closing her eyes and trying to regain her energy. Star crawled over to her and cut the tape that bound her hands, freeing her. "Are you okay? We didn't mean to hurt you, really. It was just a prank."

"Yeah, sure." Sam gasped back. "Then where's Paulina and the others? I notice they didn't come back with you."

"They just didn't notice something was wrong." Star replied.

"Or they didn't care." Sam grumbled.

Star bit her lip and looked up toward the exit, then looked down at Sam again. "Really, we didn't mean any harm. We're sorry." She stood up and turned to leave in a hurry.

Sam pushed herself up to her hands and knees, calling out, "Star!" Star stopped and looked back at her over her shoulder. "Thanks. For saving me." Sam gasped out. Star smiled slightly and waved before turning to run out of the small pool area. Sam lowered her head, resting for a few more minutes before she pushed herself up to her feet. She was dripping wet, and a chill evening wind had begun to blow through the city, chilling her to the bone. Her boots were still on the bottom of the pool, and she didn't feel like going back in after them.

Sam stopped when she noticed Paulina's Necronomicon sitting on the ground by the poolside. Sam wasn't one to take other peoples' property, but Paulina had obviously thrown it away. Besides, Sam felt that she was owed something after all of this, and it was a pretty cool book. So she knelt down and pulled it into her arms and turned to leave the pool area. She brushed her sopping wet hair out of her eyes as she emerged out of the apartment complex and onto the sidewalk.

The street was mostly empty, and the sun was slowly moving down toward the western horizon. It was almost time for her to get home, but she wanted to let Danny know she was okay first, so she turned to make her way toward the Fenton Works building. As she walked, she realized she must look terrible. Sopping wet, shoeless with makeup running down her face sloppily, and clutching a thick book in her arms like a life preserver. The strange looks those few people on the streets gave her enforced this realization.

She approached the Fenton Works building, and let out a sneeze before she could grip the doorknob. Great, that was all she needed. A cold. Oh well, at least she didn't have to be back at school for another week.

She pushed the door open and walked inside. She found Jazz and Danny sitting in the living room on the couch while Hope lay in her crib set against the far wall. The two Fentons turned to look when she entered, and both of them stood up in alarm when they saw the state she was in.

"Sam!? What happened!?" Danny rushed around the coffee table and up to her side, taking one of her arms to support her.

"I don't really wanna talk about it." Sam sneezed suddenly, then sniffled as she looked up at Danny with a soft smile. "But I think I could use some hot cocoa."

"Yeah, I'll get you some. Sit down and rest for a few minutes." Danny led her over to the couch and sat her down despite the fact that she was still pretty damp and turned to rush into the kitchen. Jazz scooted closer to her and put a comforting hand on top of Sam's.

"What happened? Did someone do this to you?" Jazz asked in a hushed tone. "I won't tell Danny."

"It was just Paulina." Sam shook her head. "Guess I kind of asked for this. I should've known she'd go for revenge for the dodge ball to the face."

"I see." Jazz nodded. "I really hope you're not planning to get back at her for this."

"What do you mean? She'd deserve it." Sam replied.

"Sam, the cycle of revenge is a vicious thing. You keep hurting her, she keeps hurting you, and pretty soon you're both in a world of pain." Jazz warned her.

"Relax, I'll deal with it." Sam replied. Jazz sighed and looked down, noticing the book clutched in Sam's arms for the first time. She made a face of disgust and looked up at her quizzically. "It's supposed to be a copy of the Necronomicon. She tried to put some kind of evil curse on me with it."

"Ewe. That's just gross. Why do you have it?" Jazz asked.

"She decided she didn't want it anymore." Sam replied. When Jazz glared at her she continued. "Seriously, she just left it by the pool where she left me to drown. I'm not a thief, come on."

"Okay, I believe you." Jazz raised her hands in defeat. Just then Danny returned from the kitchen and set a mug of steaming hot cocoa in front of Sam on the coffee table.

"Thanks Danny." Sam smiled up at him gratefully and set the book on the table so she could lift the mug in both hands. She blew on it for a few moments before taking a careful sip. She noticed Danny give the strange book an odd glance, but he didn't say anything until she lowered the mug from her lips. "Mmm. That hits the spot." She sneezed.

"Why don't you rest here for a while before you go home? I'll call your mom and let her know you'll be back a little late." Jazz suggested.

"No no, I'm fine. I can make it hoACHOO!" Sam sneezed more violently, her knee slamming into the coffee table to splash her cocoa across the cover of her book. "Ugh, okay, you win." Sam sank back against the thick couch tiredly. The bang however awakened Hope on the other side of the room, who began to scream her tiny fury to the world at large.

"Ugh." Jazz grunted and walked over to the baby's crib.

"Sorry." Sam apologized.

"Don't worry about it, it happens." Jazz replied. "Danny, could you call her mom for me?"

"Sure thing." Danny nodded and headed into the kitchen after the telephone.

Sam sneezed again and sniffled on the couch, feeling more miserable by the second. Damn Paulina and her idiocy. Oh well, at least she'd gotten an awesome copy of the Necronomicon out of it. She always wanted one, but her parents tended to freak out at the slightest mention of the name. She wasn't even allowed to watch the Evil Dead movies, which was downright blasphemous for a girl like her.

Sam grabbed the book from the coffee table, intending to wipe the cocoa off of it, but to her surprise it was already gone. "Weird." She muttered to herself. She'd seen copies of this book in some novelty shops during trips around the world with her parents, but very few nailed the look like this one did. It even looked age-worn. Its cover was wrinkled and gnarled like really old leather bindings, the claws on the spine were yellowed like real claws, and the pages were thin and brittle, though they never seemed to be in danger of falling apart. When she opened the book, the writing on the inside was done in ink that was almost black, but could definitely be recognized as a really deep shade of red. The script even looked like it was written by hand.

"Wicked." Sam grinned, then sneezed again.

"Your mom said she'll come pick you up." Danny's voice said from above her. Sam looked up from the book at him. "I tried to talk her out of it, but she said she doesn't like you being out anywhere while you're sick." Sam frowned. There was no way her mom would let her take this book home with her. She had to hide it.

"Here, do you think you could hold onto this for me then?" Sam held the book up to Danny, who took it from her with some reluctance. "My mom would totally flip out if she saw it."

"Sure." Danny looked down at the book strangely. "I can't say I blame her though. This thing looks terrible."

"Awesome, isn't it?" Sam grinned, then sneezed violently, bumping the table with her knee again. A fresh wave of infantile crying erupted from the other side of the room.

"Darnit, Sam!" Jazz shouted in frustration.

"Sorry, sorry." Sam smiled sheepishly. Jazz took a deep breath and turned to carry her crying daughter up the steps to her room. Danny and Sam both turned when they heard a knock at the front door. "Guess that's her." Sam stood up. "I'd hug you or something, but do you really want the germs?"

"I'll deal." Danny kissed her lightly on the lips. "See you tomorrow Sam."

"Yeah, see you." Sam smiled and walked to the door, opening it to find her mother waiting for her outside. She walked outside with her, heading to the car sitting in the driveway. Honestly, lying in her warm soft bed sounded pretty good right about now.

* * *

Danny walked into his room after Sam had left, holding the gnarled and disgusting book under the crook of his arm. He knew Sam had a morbid fascination with this kind of thing, but he'd never seen the appeal. So he dropped the book on his computer desk with a heavy thud and promptly ignored it, walking over to the window to look out at the growing dusk.

He hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Sam about the strange woman in the cemetery. Oh well, there was always tomorrow. But the encounter was bugging him immensely. A random person showing up who knew his deepest, darkest secret couldn't possibly be a good thing. And the fact that she was looking for the Reality Gems was even more unsettling. He remembered what Freakshow did with them, who knew what this woman had in store?

Still, to be rid of the ghost entirely was an enticing proposition. He could often hear it whispering into his mind, wanting him to lash out. To scream, to yell, even to kill for little or no reason. He couldn't remember the last time he really let go of his worries and had some fun. Even his time alone with Sam was overshadowed by this lingering fear of being overcome by the voice. A sense that he couldn't let himself go or he would be lost forever.

But did that make it right to exchange the power of all reality simply to be rid of the ghost? He couldn't say. But it seemed he had time to think about it, and consult Sam in the meantime. Perhaps not tomorrow, he still had to work some things out on his own. But soon...

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

One week later, Sam is allowed back in school, and Paulina isn't very happy when she starts heckling her in the hallways and spreading around her inept attempt at voodoo witchery. Star watches all of this unfold with a blank eye, but when Paulina begins hatching an even more outrageous plot against the Goth girl, it may be time for the Satellite to break away from orbit. How does a girl like Star end up so wholly devoted to a girl like Paulina anyway?

Haunted Legacies Episode 03: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star


	3. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Paulina hatched an insidious revenge plot against Sam for making her nose slightly less perfect than it was before the day of the dodgeball incident. An insidious plot that involved a copy of the Necronomicon, the "Book of the Dead", and then a swimming pool and some duct tape. Sam escaped the pool with her life only thanks to a surprise rescue by Paulina's satellite groupie, Star, and returned home with Paulina's copy of the Necronomicon, which she left with Danny for safekeeping. Meanwhile, Danny went on a trip to the cemetery, where he intended to seek his lost friends' help in containing the ghost inside of him, but was met with a mysterious woman who seems to know everything about Danny's past and present. She asked him to help her find the Reality Gems, and in exchange, she would help Danny fight the evil that lives inside of him.

Haunted Legacies Episode 03: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

"Wow, that's so amazing!" A woman's voice exclaimed in glee and delight, her hands clapping in front of her to the beat of a flute being played to such perfection that it could bring a tear to anyone's eye. The woman laughed again as the girl danced in the middle of the room, her feet landing lightly and her fingers sliding gracefully across the length of her instrument. "Wonderful! Wonderful!" The entire room was alight with laughter and merriment, until people began dancing with the girl in the middle of the room.

"Listen, mommy." A soft little voice said from just outside the room. The little girl raised her own flute to her lips and began to blow into it. A single, long note echoed through the empty room, but didn't seem to penetrate the laughter from inside the next room. "Listen, mommy... listen." The girl blew and blew until she was out of breath. And kept blowing, unheard and unnoticed by the people dancing in the next room.

Her eyes snapped open at the sound of the alarm blaring by her bedside. It was only two hours before school was scheduled to start, and she knew how much Paulina hated to be kept waiting. So Star regretfully shoved her sheets back and climbed out of bed to get ready for the day.

She emerged from her bedroom with her day clothes in her arms and a towel draped over one shoulder, heading down the hallway of the one-story building on the edge of town. The house was made entirely of unpolished wood, looking more like an abandoned shed in the forest than a place of residents. Which was exactly the way her mother liked it. She always wanted to live out in the wilderness among the trees, but the practical applications of such a life were too much for her to handle. So she settled for a wooden hovel in the small town of Amity Park.

She made it to the bathroom and tried to open it, but found the door locked. "Ugh, are you almost finished in there, Moon?"

"Just give me a minute!" Moon shouted back through the door.

"Hurry up. Paulina doesn't like to be kept waiting." Star sighed and moved to lean against the wall beside the door to wait. She heard her sister scuffling for another thirty minutes in the bathroom before finally the door opened and she walked out holding a towel around herself with one hand.

"It's all yours." Moon told her. She was a head and shoulders taller then Star, with a man of voluminous pitch black hair that cascaded down around her shoulders in a wave whenever she walked, though it was currently sticking to her shoulders from the shower she'd recently taken. Star waited for her to move, then pushed past her into the bathroom, where she shut the door tightly behind her, locking it.

When she was showered, dried, and dressed in her clothes for the day, she emerged from the bathroom and made her way down to the modestly sized kitchen. Her sister was already sitting at the table eating in her own clothing, with her mother sitting at the table on her other side. Wearing little more than a toga draped around her body and a her hair up in a messily pulled together bun, she was eating a plate full of eggs, grits, and wheat bread.

Her mother looked over when Star entered. "Fair morning, my daughter." She said with a dreamy smile. "Please, have some breakfast before you go to school."

"I'm not hungry." Star replied as she often did. "I think I'll just grab a sandwich on the way."

Her mother looked disappointed, but said nothing. Before Star could leave though, her sister spoke. "Don't you mean on your way to meet Paulina?" She asked off-handedly, as if it was perfectly valid breakfast conversation. Moon didn't like Paulina very much, and often made her opinion known. Their mother, however, was sitting at the table with that same oblivious and content smile she always wore.

"Oh wonderful. Friendship is the force that makes our planet grand, after all." Her mother said with a serene smile. "Now why don't you join us for breakfast Star? You're always in such a hurry. We haven't had time to align our chakra."

"Um, yeah, I'll try to find time in my schedule." Star turned to leave quickly.

As she walked out she heard Moon sigh under her breath, but she ignored it and made her way outside, where the rest of society looked as normal and warm as her family seemed strange and weird. She hated her family at times. Going outside with them was pure embarrassment and they never really gave her the time of day. Sometimes she figured they wouldn't miss her if she were gone. Her mom would still have Moon, after all.

She made her way down the sidewalk until she reached a larger house closer to the school. She approached and rapped on the door lightly. It took only a few moments for Paulina to jerk the door open, her lips curled into a wry smirk.

"You're almost late." Paulina insisted.

"Sorry, my sister was hogging the shower." Star replied. Paulina chuckled mirthfully.

"Ah, sisters. Makes me glad to be an only child." Paulina cackled and hefted her book bag up over one shoulder. "Well, let's get going. We don't want to be late for our praise and admiration, do we?"

"Of course not." Star smiled and stepped aside so Paulina could pass. Paulina passed by her without a second glance, and they were on their way to school. The morning sky was overcast with a swath of light clouds, but there were darker ones coming up over the horizon. It looked likely to rain at some point in the day. Hopefully it would be over by the time school let out.

"Did you bring the lunch I asked for?" Paulina asked.

"Um..." Star winced. In her haste to leave the house she'd completely forgotten about it. Paulina stopped walking and turned to glare at her. "Sorry, it must have slipped my mind."

"What do you mean? You forgot it?" Paulina frowned angrily.

"I'm sorry, really! I'll buy you lunch! Anywhere you want!" Star insisted quickly.

"Good." Paulina turned away from her again. "I'm not going hungry because you can't remember one simple little promise." Star nodded quickly and followed after her friend. It was a simple promise, to provide Paulina lunch every day. It wasn't a bad request, she knew others would ask for far more if they could.

As they approached the school Paulina stopped a moment to fluff out her hair and check her makeup in a small compact before proceeding further into the school grounds. Star could see girls and boys all over the place look in their direction, almost as if trying to catch a glimpse of the queen of England strolling through the park. This was the part that Star liked best. The recognition. The admiration. They envied her, they wanted to be her. And she couldn't imagine any better feeling.

Soon though she noticed that not all of the glances were envious. Some looked almost amused, and other kids began chuckling right before they turned away. Paulina was also beginning to notice, her expression fading from her usual cocky demeanor to angry confusion.

"What's going on here?" Paulina demanded. "People do not laugh at me. They love me. Because I am an adorable peach!" Paulina stomped up to the nearest snickering student she could see. Star scurried close behind her. "What are you laughing at!?"

"Nothing! Nothing!" The boy snickered with his friend.

"Be careful Ned, she might try to cast a spell on us." His friend said with a wave of his crooked fingers. Both of the boys almost collapsed to the floor laughing, but Paulina did not look amused. Her face turned red and her eyes began to bulge dangerously.

"Stop laughing at me!" She roared.

"Ah! No! She's after us!" The boy called Ned exclaimed in mock horror.

"Klaatu, Verata, Nicto!" The second boy waved his fingers at Paulina as if trying to enchant her. It was at that point that Paulina lost it and lashed out at them, but the boys dashed off down the hallway, avoiding her attack.

"Yeah! You run! Nobody disrespects me!" Paulina was absolutely livid in the middle of the hallway. Those students who were still snickering around her fell suddenly silent, sensing the danger in laughing any more.

Star worriedly walked up behind her friend, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's okay Paulina, it was just two kids." She stopped when she heard a crunch from right behind them. Paulina and Star slowly looked to the side, and spotted Samantha Manson leaning against one of the lockers nearby. She had her back against the locker, a half-eaten apple in one hand, and a very satisfied smile on her face.

"Hey Paulina. They finally let me back in school." Sam spoke as if they were long time buddies meeting in a clubhouse.

"What did you DO, freak!?" Paulina looked more furious than Star had ever seen her. But then, nobody had ever laughed at Paulina before. Well, nobody except the school losers, but they didn't count as people. "What vile, hideous lies have you been spreading?"

"I didn't lie about anything." Sam replied. "I just told a little tale about a certain evil ritual of yours. It's not my fault it's so hilarious."

"You... YOU..." Paulina's fists shuddered at her sides. "How DARE you undermine my popularity! Losers don't get to tell embarrassing stories about their superiors!"

"Hey, I just report what I see. If people laugh, maybe you should take a good look at yourself." Sam pushed off of the locker and turned to leave, flinging the rest of her apple carelessly over her shoulder. The apple slapped wetly into Paulina's forehead, sticking there for a few seconds before sliding slowly down her nose. By the time it fell to the floor it was covered in makeup.

"Why... I... ur... URRAAAAGH!" Paulina howled out her rage, her fists pumping uselessly into the air around her in a death field that nobody wanted to penetrate. "How dare she! I've never been so insulted! Nobody insults me like this and gets away with it! Nobody! You hear me!?"

"Paulina, calm down. People are staring." Star warned in a whisper. Paulina collected herself enough to look around at all of the other students, watching with wide-frightened eyes. She stood up tall and straightened out her blouse, forcing herself into a calmer posture, though she was still shaking with rage.

"This didn't happen. RIGHT!?" Paulina screamed to the other students in the hallway. They all nodded their heads quickly, so Paulina turned to make her way down the hallway with Star bringing up the rear close behind. "I can't believe that loser had the guts to start spreading rumors about ME. I can't believe anyone would actually believe her! Has the world gone insane!?"

"It's totally uncalled for." Star agreed with a nod.

"Of course it is! WE spread rumors about HER, not the other way around! What is wrong with this school!?" Paulina stomped up to her locker and yanked the door open to retrieve her books. Star quickly reached into her locker, which was right beside Paulina's, and pulled her own books out before turning to follow Paulina down the hallway again. They both looked up when Dash almost bumped into them as he emerged from a hallway to the side.

"Hey babe." Dash said with a charming smile. "I've heard about you-"

"SILENCE!" Paulina roared. "You heard nothing!"

"I... I heard nothing." Dash agreed with a swift nod.

"And you will help me get my revenge!" Paulina added.

"I will! I will!" Dash nodded eagerly.

"Good. Meet me in the usual spot after lunch. We'll come up with something that will shut Miss Dark'N'Gloomy up forever!" Paulina whirled to stomp down the hallway, with Star once again hot on her heels. "It's simply outrageous!"

"A travesty." Star agreed.

"A trave... darnit Star! Don't take my exclamations!" Paulina shouted.

"Sorry." Star smiled sheepishly. They approached their first class. Star had made sure at the start of the year that they shared all the same classes, so they wouldn't have to keep separating throughout the day. Paulina was taking care of her after all. If it wasn't for her, Star would never have gotten along in this place after moving here. She could still remember it. She was a small town girl moving to a relatively large town. No idea how to act around the others. Paulina had helped her though. Helped take her from an awkward newcomer to one of the most popular girls in school. Star had never been popular before. She found it exhilarating. She always walked with her head a little bit higher now.

After their first class was behind them, Paulina led the way down the hall, then looked around to make sure they were alone before ducking into the same broom closet she likes to use for all of her secret meetings. She could simply call everyone to her house of course, but there was too much risk of her parents overhearing there. They found Dash already waiting, looking incredibly bored.

"Hey!" Dash perked up when he saw the two girls enter. "So, what do I do? Punch someone?"

"Hmm... crude, but effective. We'll call that Plan B." Paulina replied. "First, we should try something a bit more scarring. Like the way she scarred me, AND my reputation." Paulina growled bitterly, then her eyes lit up and she let out a laugh. "And I have the perfect idea! All I need you to do is get her to the flag pole in front of this school tonight at... let's make it eight. I have a piano lesson and then of course I'm such a beauty I need at least eight hours of solid beauty sleep."

"Um... how am I supposed to get Sam there at eight?" Dash asked. "I wouldn't want to be seen walking around the streets with her, it could ruin my image! And that's all I've got in life!"

"I don't care how, just see that it happens!" Paulina snapped back. "Now if you'll excuse me, we have preparations to make." Paulina turned to leave the closet, pushing the door open and marching boldly out into the hallway toward her next class. Star paced her closely, wondering what kind of plan Paulina had in mind. The last plan had left her feeling pretty uncomfortable.

She still remembered seeing Sam huddled over on the ground beside the pool after Star pulled her out of the water. She'd been weak and gasping for air, trembling and soaking wet like a frightened animal that had barely escaped a death trap. If Star hadn't shown up, she was afraid Sam would have died. She didn't want to see that, and she was sure Paulina didn't either. She didn't... did she?

No, of course not. Star shook her head to clear away the ridiculous thought. Paulina was a bit forceful, and some even called her mean, but she wasn't evil. She was a good person. She took Star under her wing after all. She'd taken this pitiful, hopeless outsider girl and turned her into one of the most loved girls in Amity Park. She wouldn't do something so horrible as try to kill someone. It was a mistake, Paulina couldn't have foreseen Sam's shoes weighing her down. Star was lucky she noticed it after the others turned to leave. Yeah, that's right. They didn't notice it. That was what happened.

Still, Star moved closer to Paulina to ask a question. "What are you gonna do to her, Paulina?" She asked curiously. "It's not TOO bad, is it?"

"Of course not. It's exactly what she deserves." Paulina grinned, but said nothing more. Rather than risk upsetting her, Star let the conversation lapse into silence. She didn't want to upset Paulina, she just hoped that she wouldn't go out of her mind over this.

* * *

Sam lounged back in her bed at homes, her hands propped up behind her back while she watched the 50-inch LCD TV perched at the foot of her bed. She didn't like to flaunt her money, but sometimes it was nice to submerse herself in some of the luxuries it afforded her. Including the stereo speakers that emerged from her walls and floor to give her viewing of Nightmare on Elm Street that extra edge of creepiness.

The grunted in irritation when the phone on her nightstand forced her to pause her movie to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hey Sam." Danny's voice came back. Despite her irritation at having her movie interrupted, his voice made her smile. "Just called to see what's up."

"Not much. Enjoying some me time."

"Ooh. Sorry. I'll let you go." Danny replied.

"Nah. It's fine. I sometimes like some company in my me time." Sam smiled slyly. "What have you been up to?"

"Trying to do anything I can to block out the baby." Danny replied. "It wouldn't even be so bad if it was constant. But it starts and stops at random. I'm not sure Jazz actually knows what she's doing."

"She wasn't exactly prepared for this." Sam smirked. "It's only been two weeks, she'll get the hang of it." She listened to silence on the other end of the line for a moment, then hears a sigh of relief.

"Whew, it finally stopped." Danny's voice was dripping with relief as he spoke. "I think Hope may have finally gotten to sleep."

"See? Jazz knows what she's doing. She just needs a minute to figure out what it is she knows." Sam pointed out.

Danny laughed. "Yeah, a minute and maybe a few years on top of it." Sam laughed and they lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few moments.

"So..." Sam smiled. "What're you wearing?" Sam didn't have time to hear his reply before she heard her mom shout from the bottom of the stairs.

"Sam, a friend of yours is at the door!" Her mother called.

"Ugh, give me a second. I'll be right back." Sam set her phone down on the bed with an irritated grumble and turned to head downstairs.

When she reached the front door she slowed to a stop with a stunned, blank look on her face. Dash was standing outside with the fakest smile she'd ever seen plastered on his lips while a thick leather jacket and a pair of blue jeans only made him look more like an arrogant muscle head than he really was.

"Hey Sam!" Dash waved with such energy it was almost creepy. "I had to come by to see you!"

"Who the Hell are you?" Sam demanded.

Dash laughed. "Oh golly gee Sam, you know me! I'm Dash Baxter from school! I've thought about the way I've been treating you and well... I know I've been a big jerk. So I'd like to make it up to you."

Sam stared at him, her expression becoming equal parts suspicious and disgusted. "Did you actually just say 'golly gee'? What the heck is going on here? You know what, forget it. You're starting to freak me out, so I'm going to close this door and pretend you never came. Please also pretend you were never here, okay? Okay." Sam moved to close the door, but Dash shoved his foot in the door to keep it from closing.

"Wait, wait." Dash sighed, looking more genuine than before. "Come on, hear me out. I'm serious here. I just want to talk." Sam could hardly believe it, but she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Alright, you have thirty seconds." Sam told him without opening the door any wider.

"I've been talking to some buddies of mind and I know I've been a jerk to some people. I don't mean to be, it just happens sometimes. So I thought I would go around and apologize to those who've gotten it the most. I know I've been kind of hard on you and your boyfriend, so I wanted to apologize to you first. I'm heading to Fenton's after this, I just wanted to talk to you first."

"Oh my gosh." Sam blinked in amazement. "You're really serious about all this, aren't you? It's like... it's like Jack the Ripper apologizing for all those killings! It's historic!" Sam stepped outside with him, growing excited now. "Well, ahem." She coughed, trying to calm down. "Okay, well, if you're really serious about this, I guess I can give you a chance to turn yourself around. I'm always an open girl and am willing to listen to anything you... might..." She trailed off when Dash reached out and closed her front door, a broad grin spreading across his face. Sam narrowed her eyes. "You evil motherfu-"

Dash's hand snapped out, grabbing her tightly up against his chest and turning to run away from the house with her clutched like a football under one arm. Sam struggled to get loose, but all the muscle that was missing from his brain had been spread into Dash's arms. She couldn't even budge his grip. She couldn't believe this. This was the second time in as many weeks that she'd been snatched and dragged somewhere against her will. She needed to hire a bodyguard.

She couldn't even scream with his disgusting, sweaty meat-hand clamped over her mouth, so she just sighed and let him carry her through the back alleys to avoid being seen by those people who continued to roam the streets in the growing orange light of dusk. Eventually Dash wound his way through the back alleys and emerged near Casper High School, where he charged across the front lawn like the meathead he was.

As they approached the flagpole Sam groaned inwardly at the sight of Paulina and her small group of lackeys standing around with superior smirks on their faces. Though Sam noticed that Star was looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"I got her for you Paulina." Dash swung Sam in front of him and let her feet land on the ground, though he held her arms behind her back so she wouldn't escape.

"Well, look who decided to join us. The star of our show tonight." Paulina smirked that cocky smirk of hers. "Revenge is swift, Sam. And you will pay for turning me into a laughing stock!"

"You turned yourself into a laughing stock." Sam pointed out.

"Silence! Tie her to the flagpole!" Paulina roared furiously. Dash dragged Sam by her arms to the flagpole and grabbed the rope from which the flag hung, wrapping it around Sam and the pole to pin her there. Sam struggled against the bonds, but still couldn't do much against Dash's solid grip. He didn't do a very good knot though, Sam noticed, but she didn't want to work it loose with him standing so close.

"What are you going to do this time? Curse me into a life of celibacy with the Kama Sutra?" Sam asked mockingly. A few of the other girls cackled, but fell silent immediately when Paulina shot them a death glare.

"I decided to be more direct this time." Paulina grinned and held out one hand. One of the other girls approached with a long, solid looking black whip and placed the end in Paulina's open hand. "Something a bit more scarring." Sam blinked in surprise, and a bit of fear. What was it Jazz had said about the cycle of revenge ending in a world of pain? "So I decided to leave some real scars."

"H... hey... y'know, about the whole 'let's all laugh at Paulina' thing, you know I didn't mean it." Sam chuckled nervously.

"I'm sure you didn't." Paulina walked toward her, slapping the whip idly into the palm of her free hand. "All just a misunderstanding, right?"

"Yeah, that's right. I told a friend the story, and she misunderstood it and passed it along. I had nothing to do with the laughing and... and pointing... and mocking." Sam trailed off, trying to figure out how not to tick off Paulina further.

"Shut up!" Paulina cracked the whip with a surprisingly expert flip. The whipped snapped into the air in front of her, so close to Sam's face she could feel a puff of wind strike her cheek from its passing. She was almost shaking now, though she tried not to. "Oohhhh, do I see you shaking? Finally I think I'm getting through to you." Paulina laughed. "There's a reason nobody makes fun of me, Goth girl."

"Okay, don't you think this is going a bit far?" Sam asked shakily. "A voodoo curse is one thing, but this is-."

Paulina interrupted her. "This is a lesson well-earned." Paulina lifted the whip back over her head, bringing it around sharply. A scream leapt out of Sam's throat involuntarily as it ripped across the tender flesh of her stomach. She doubled over in pain against the bonds that held her against the pole, gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut against the sharp sting in her stomach.

Paulina's lackeys let out gasps at first when they saw the blood dripping down from the intense gash across her stomach. Paulina though just looked down at her stomach with a strange expression on her face, her fist tightening around the handle of the whip.

"Oh geeze." One of the other girls shuddered. "Oh geeze, oh geeze."

"We are dead meat when the principal finds out about this." Another girl exclaimed fearfully. "Our parents are going to kill us until we're dead."

"Ow..." Sam grunted out finally once she could speak. The pain was so intense she couldn't even straighten her back. It stung like a dozen bees, and lingered on well after the initial impact.

"Maybe we should get her to a doctor." Star suggested worriedly. "It looks like a pretty nasty cut."

"She'll tell on us! We'll all catch Hell for this!" One of Paulina's other lackeys screamed in a panic.

"It's over! We're dead!" The second girl cried mournfully.

"SHUT UP!" Paulina shrieked over the noise, silencing her lackeys. "We're not going to get in trouble for this. I NEVER get in trouble." Paulina marched right up in front of Sam, putting her hands on her hips. "She's not going to tell anyone. Nobody would believe her anyway."

Sam smirked through the sharp, but fading, pain. "My mom saw me greet Dash at the door. If nobody else, he'll definitely be linked to it."

"Me!? But... but my scholarship!" Dash exclaimed in fear. "Kidnapping is punishable by being kicked off the football team!"

"Nobody will know about this!" Paulina silenced him sharply, then whirled on Sam. "Listen, I am not losing my future because of you! Girls with a record of physical violence never become famous! Ever!"

"Guess you're screwed. Hehehe." Sam cackled mischievously. It occurred to her it was a bad idea to taunt the girl holding the whip only after a second crack ripped through her right leg in a fury. Sam howled and hunched over the ropes again, holding up her leg and biting her lip against the pain.

"Don't do that, Paulina!" Star shouted suddenly, grabbing the whip and pulling it away from her. "You hurt her enough!" Paulina and the other girls whirled to look at her in shock, their horror over Sam's plight being replaced by confusion at the very concept that one of their own would ever rebel against Paulina. "I mean, you'll get us in worse trouble." Star hastened to explain. "One lash is hard enough to explain, two just looks... malicious."

"Are you trying to stop me, Star?" Paulina demanded. "I do what I want, nobody stops me!"

"Of course not!" Star complained. "I just think-"

"You don't think! That's why you have me! To think for you, because you don't know how this place works. Now give me the whip." Paulina held out her hand. Star looked down it, almost trembling as she slowly began to hold it out.

"Don't give it to her Star." Sam said suddenly. "Who knows what she'll do with it? How bad does it have to get before you realize this isn't just some silly prank? She wanted to see blood tonight."

"Ridiculous!" Paulina shouted. "I am not a violent person!"

"Whose bright idea was this then?" Sam looked around at the crowd. "Who decided this was a good prank, huh?" All eyes turned to Paulina, whose face was bright red with rage. "Who decided it was a good idea to throw me in a swimming pool and walk away? A prankster would've stayed around to make sure I was safe. That wasn't a prank. That was attempted murder! Just like this!"

"I am not a violent person!" Paulina shouted. "I just have to do things sometimes! You know how it is! I don't want to do it!"

"You guys don't believe that, do you?" Sam asked. "Come on, who are you gonna believe? Me, or her?" Sam asked. The girls looked back and forth between them, along with Dash, who looked uncertain for a moment before he caught Paulina's eye and walked over to stand beside her. The other girls followed suit, affirming their blind loyalty to the royal witch. That suited Sam just fine. She prepared to twist the knot loose and make her break for it, now that Dash was far enough away.

She stopped when, to her surprise, Star walked around the crowd, moving to stand in front of Sam with the whip clutched so tightly her knuckles were white. The rest of the gang stared at her as if she just mutated into a horrible monster, but she stood with her back straight, though her knees were practically trembling with nervousness. She gulped and took a deep breath before speaking.

"This isn't right, Paulina. Yeah, Sam started those rumors, and before that she deformed your nose, but... but all of this? This is torture!" Star insisted.

"You're defying me?" Paulina asked softly, though her soft voice hid a horrible rage seething inside.

"I just don't understand." Star's voice shook. "I don't understand why a good person like you would ENJOY this! Why!?"

"She's not a good person. She's a power-hungry she-witch who uses people and throws them away. People like you." Sam said from behind her.

"Don't listen to the loser." Paulina scoffed. "And don't act so high-and-mighty. You enjoy all of the same things I do. You like seeing the lesser students of this school squander their lives trying to reach my perfection." Paulina flipped her jet black hair back over one shoulder, striking a sultry pose. "You like making them wish they were us. The power it gives us."

"I... I do..." Star replied. "I like being in control."

"And I am the reason you are in control. So give me the whip, and get back in line." Paulina held out her hand, waiting for Star to hand over the weapon. Star looked down at the whip, gripping the handle tightly in two hands. She looked over her shoulder at Sam, whose stomach and skirt were covered in her blood, though the flow had thankfully stopped by now.

The blonde girl turned back to Paulina, her grip on the whip tightening. "I want to be with you... but Sam doesn't deserve this. And I won't let it happen."

"Oh, please. As if you can stop us anyway." Paulina smirked. "But fine... if you want to throw away everything I've given you... the status, the control, the pride... then you're free to. Girls, get her!"

"Come on!" Sam ripped the last piece of the knot open on the rope holding her against the flagpole, grabbing Star's wrist and pulling her along as she charged across the front lawn of Casper High. Her leg was throbbing where the whip had bitten into it, but it was only a surface wound thankfully.

The girls and Dash Baxter ran after them, their footsteps ripping across the schoolyard lawn, but Sam and Star ran as hard as they could. Sam's wounds quickly began to slow her down, but Star yanked her close and dragged her along, forcing her to keep running until at last, they turned down a corner and made it to the next alley before Dash and the girls could follow suit. They ducked low against the wall, their breath coming in fast, deep gasps while their hearts raced.

They remained silent for a long while, listening for any sign of their pursuers. After ten minutes of silence, Sam felt herself relax somewhat. She shifted against the wall, putting one hand to her stomach, where the vigorous motions of running had once again opened part of her wound, which began to bleed a little bit through her fingers. "Geeze... really stings."

"I can't believe I did that." Star sounded numb as she stared into the wall across from her. "I can't believe Paulina would do that."

"Yeah, well... way I see it, I owe you my life twice now." Sam told her seriously. She'd been truly frightened back there. She doubted Paulina had the guts to go through with the final act, but there was still that slight possibility. Plus being left in a pool to drown made it a bit easier to believe Paulina had very real homicidal tendencies. "Thank you isn't really enough this time."

"Hey, don't gush all over me." Star blushed and looked away. "I've never had a stomach for violence or killing... it just makes me nervous, and I have to try to stop it."

"Lucky for me." Sam smiled wryly. "You didn't seem like you really belong with them anyway. There's just something... a little different about you."

"You noticed...?" Star still refused to look at her. "Well, unlike the others, my family isn't... isn't..."

"Filthy stinking rich, giving you your heart's every desire and turning you into a spoiled brat?" Sam asked. Star didn't respond. "Trust me, I know the type... but if you're not one of them, why would you want to become that?"

"I don't know. I was new here, I've never been popular and it... it felt good to be loved and admired." Star replied. "I guess I just thought since Paulina helped me she was a good person... but maybe you're right. Maybe she was just using me all along."

"You know, I think I know who you should talk to." Sam pushed herself to her feet, grunting a bit.

"You're going to help me?" Star looked up in surprise.

"Well duh. You've saved my life twice now. Trying to help you work through whatever issues you have is the least I can do." Sam held out her hand. Star reached up and took it, letting Sam help pull her up to her feet. "Besides, I'm sure Jazz would be ecstatic to have her first patient."

"Jazz? Well... I have heard good things..." Star said thoughtfully.

Sam gestured for Star to follow and finally left the safety of the alley, making her way down the sidewalk with Star by her side. "Come on, maybe we can swing by Danny's place and I can... oh man, Danny!"

* * *

Danny sat on his bed, holding his phone to his ear like a statue, waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting...

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Danny receives a mysterious call from the Guys In White, who claim to have Danielle in their lab, injured and in need of his assistance. Danny goes to help and finds her unconscious, but he doesn't have time to ponder why she won't wake up. The Men In White haven't forgotten Danny Phantom's existence, and Dani has given them the clues they need to find out who he really is once again. Now Danny may have to unleash his dark side to save himself and the girl whose life he came to save. Meanwhile, Sam and Star attempt to bring Paulina's violent nature to the attention of school authorities, but nobody will listen. Can anyone protect them from Paulina's true, unhindered wrath?

Haunted Legacies Episode 04: She's A Phantom


	4. She's A Phantom Part 1

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Paulina's latest revenge plot turned out to be more serious than anyone could have anticipated, including a brutal assault with a razor sharp whip that could have easily turned deadly. But Star, Paulina's once-faithful satellite, turned against her friends and rescued Sam from their clutches once again. Owing Star her life twice over, Sam promised to talk Jazz into helping Star discover why she has this insatiable need to be recognized and beloved by everyone, and a new friendship is born.

Haunted Legacies Episode 04: She's A Phantom Part 1

NINE AND A HALF MONTHS AGO

The soft crackle of a fire burning in the fireplace was welcome in the middle of the cold night that claimed the small city in its icy grip. The soft orange light cast powerful, soothing shadows against the wall behind her as the woman gently poked at the flames with an iron fire poker, making sure the fire didn't go out. The black robe that swept down her body brushed against the floor after she stood to her full height.

She turned away from the fireplace, looking back at the comfortable, if slightly worn, sofa behind her. A small boy and girl only twelve years old sat side-by-side, both looking down at the floor with cute pouts on their faces. The woman gave them a stern look and walked up to stand in front of them, clasping her hands behind her back as she looked down at their guilty faces.

"Well? Do you have anything to say? Robert? Danielle?" The woman asked.

Danielle and Robert spoke in unison. "No Sister Allouette."

"You know I try to respect your individuality, but these antics are becoming disruptive to the other children here." Sister Allouette told them sternly. "I respect you both, I ask only that you respect me and the others around you."

"Yes, Sister." Danielle and Robert said again.

"Good." Sister Allouette nodded firmly. "Now as punishment, I want you both to go wash the dishes. Together, without any more fighting. If I hear a single harsh word spoken, there will be worse punishments for you." Danielle and Robert both groaned deeply. This was a large house full of children and caretakers, which meant a lot of dishes to be cleaned. But they didn't argue as they rose to head into the kitchen.

Allouette let out a soft sigh as they left. They were both good kids, she knew they were. For some reason Danielle was just so nervous with the others that she was quick to act out. Robert was her favorite partner too, though she could hardly say that he didn't enjoy the spats as much as she did. It was probably some childish puppy love, she knew. She just wished childish love wasn't so violent.

She approached the couch and sat down, reaching to the end table to turn the knob on her old-fashioned radio. She didn't like the irritating whir or flashing lights of a television. This was more than enough for her. Besides, this was a non-profit center for children in need of a home. They didn't have a lot of money to spend on the luxuries of life.

The radio spat out a moment of soft static before a voice emerged, echoing through the thinly furnished living room. "-to get confirmation of what exactly is happening. Information coming out of the area is limited to cellular phone calls from those still inside, and a handful of eyewitness accounts from those who fled the city when the incident first began. Reports continue to be conflicting, with some reporting seeing spirit-like beings wandering the streets, while still others report more demonic entities."

"God..." Allouette muttered under her breath, the fingers of one hand closing around the cross dangling from her old silver necklace.

The news anchor continued. "Again, these are just initial reports from a handful of eyewitnesses. Police and paramedics from other cities are on their way to the site right now, but they say the lines of communication to local authorities have yielded no response. We'll have to wait for more official confirmation before we can confirm what exactly is happening but... I really don't know what to say folks. When I know what's happening, you'll know too."

Allouette stood from the couch and approached the fireplace, both hands holding the cross on her neck as if it would save her from a coming flood. Restless spirits? Demons on the streets? What else could it be?

She was snapped back to attention by a startled scream from the kitchen. "SISTER! SISTER!" She turned to rush into the kitchen, and gasped. Robert was standing, pale-faced and frightened over Danielle's body, which was lying on the ground in front of him unmoving. Her body looked alright, her face its normal color, and her breath continued to come in deep, steady gasps. But her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, as unfocused as the cold glare of death itself.

"Danielle!" Sister Allouette rushed to her side, getting down on her knees beside the girl and taking one hand in hers. "Robert, go get the others. Quickly, please." Robert nodded and turned to run from the room as fast as he could. Allouette looked down at the girl again, raising a hand to her cheek. She felt warm, but she wasn't moving. It was as if her mind had suddenly been erased.

Allouette closed her eyes and spoke softly under her breath "God help her..."

PRESENT DAY

Daniel Fenton sat on the couch in his family's living room early in the morning, holding a small bundle of blankets on his arms, from which a tiny head emerged to suck on the bottle he was holding up in front of it. He leaned back against the couch cushion, staring at the wall in front of him while the clock ticked away the seconds. He'd been waiting more than half an hour like this for Jazz to get back, and his arm was starting to cramp up from holding Hope in the same position.

At last Jazz's quick, light footsteps pounded down the stairs and into the living room, looking showered and refreshed. "Alright, I'm done! Thank you so much Danny, I was starting to think I'd never get a chance to wash up."

"No problem." Danny heaved a sigh of relief when Jazz took the baby from his arms, allowing him to stretch them out. "Where are mom and dad anyway? Can't they help you take care of her?"

"No, mom thinks since she's my baby I have to take responsibility for her. The only time she'll take her is while I'm at school." Jazz grumbled something under her breath that sounded a lot like a curse word.

"Well, she does have a point." Danny replied.

"Yeah, I know she does. Doesn't make it any easier." Jazz sat down on the couch and leaned back against it. "You're free to go now."

"Try to take it easy. She'll be grown up enough to take care of herself before you know it." Danny said reassuringly.

"Ugh, don't even joke about that." Jazz shuddered. Danny laughed and stood from the couch, turning to head up to his room.

He made his way down the hall to his bedroom, where he locked the door behind him. He was so tired lately, and he wasn't sure why. But he didn't want to go to sleep right now. He could feel the voice in the back of his mind, begging him to go to sleep. If he did, would the ghost take over? No, not right now. He could always sleep later, for now he would just keep himself occupied with the video game console hooked into the small TV in the corner of his room.

He walked over to it, but the phone beside his bed rang before he could turn it on. Danny wanted to ignore it, but he knew it could be Sam. And he'd learned months ago not to ignore Sam. Ever. So he walked over to the phone and snatched it off the hook. "Hello?" Danny nestled the phone between his shoulder and his ear while he walked back toward the games.

"Danny Phantom." A gruff male voice said from the other side of the line. Danny stopped short and stared at his TV, reaching up to grab the receiver in one hand again.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Danny tried to lie.

The voice on the other end just chuckled mirthfully. "Relax, son. This is Agent Windsbury with an organization I think you know quite well." Danny paused for a few moments, trying to think. Agent...?

"The Guys in White?" Danny asked.

"Very good. I'm glad you remember us." Agent Windsbury replied. "Now listen carefully. I'm not going to keep this line of communication open long. We have a problem we think you can help us solve."

"And why should I help you?" Danny asked. There was no point any longer in pretending he wasn't Danny Phantom if they already knew. First Jazz, then that woman in the cemetery, now the Guys in White... did anyone NOT know his secret anymore?

"Because this concerns you just as much as it does us. Log onto your computer." The Agent on the phone said.

Suspicious but curious at the same time, Danny left his room to head downstairs, carrying the cordless telephone receiver with him. He made his way down to the FentonWorks basement, moving across the stainless steel floor to the computer hooked into the wall by the inert Ghost Portal. He tapped in his password and logged onto his computer accounts, and there on the screen was a picture of a girl he hadn't seen in over a year now.

"Danielle!?" Danny gasped in surprise. She looked slightly more mature than before, but there was no mistaking it. She was lying on what looked like a hospital bed, dressed in a paper gown with blankets tucked around her body and several machines by her side monitoring her vitals. "What did you do to her?"

"We saved her life." Agent Windsbury replied smoothly. "We received a call a little over nine months ago about a girl with unusual DNA who passed out suddenly without warning. On further investigation, we found high levels of ectoplasm resin in her body. We've been trying to put this puzzle together all this time, and recently we ran a test to find her closest relatives. Imagine our surprise when we found her DNA had an exact match."

"Is she okay?" Danny demanded, ignoring the rest of it. He didn't really care how they found out about it right now.

"She's alive, if that's what you mean. Frankly, we can't find the cause of her sleep. She hasn't stirred since we got hold of her, but she's still showing every sign of life that we can detect. We were thinking since your DNA matches hers, you could be key to awakening her."

"You want to help her?" Danny asked in surprise. "I thought you people hunted ghosts."

"We do. But we're not so cold and heartless to let a child remain in this condition, no matter what they are." Agent Windsbury spoke in the same cold, smooth tone he'd been using all along. But Danny didn't think he was lying about this. Why else would they bother calling Danny instead of just coming to get him like they did twice before?

"No tricks? You just want me to come and help Danielle?"

"No tricks. Just follow the yellow brick road." As the voice spoke, another image appeared on Danny's computer. It was a map of Amity Park, with a yellow line running across the map to a point well outside the city limits marked 'Destination'. "Be there by noon. We'll be waiting. And so will she." With that, there was a click and the steady dial tone began in a moment.

Danny lowered the receiver from his ear and turned it off, staring at the map that still lingered on the computer screen. There was no question to ask himself. He was going to find Dani.

* * *

The Casper High hallways seemed strangely cold that morning as Sam and Star entered school grounds walking side-by-side with a mission. Sam got a chill up her spine as they passed the flagpole in the center of the front lawn, a chill that had nothing to do with the unusually cool wind that blew through town. She was wearing a thick cloudy-gray hoodie and a pair of brown slacks that served to hide the bandages that covered her wounds from the night before.

They stopped outside the principal's office, looking up at the letters on the door for a moment before exchanging a steady glance. They both took a steadying breath and stepped forward. Sam gripped the doorknob and pushed the door open, poking her head inside. She saw the principal sitting behind her desk, writing furiously on a piece of paper on the desk.

"Mrs. Archer?" Sam asked. The principal looked up from her desk curiously, then glanced at the clock.

"Miss Manson. School hasn't even started and you've already been sent to my office?" Mrs. Archer asked in amazement.

"Nono, I'm not in trouble. I have something to tell you." Sam opened the door wider and walked inside the room. The Principal looked even more puzzled when Star walked in behind her, closing the door firmly.

"What is it, ladies?" Mrs. Archer asked in a gentle voice.

"Alright, here's what happened." Sam took a deep breath and launched into her story about what went down last night. Normally she hated tattling to authority figures, but Paulina was going way beyond what Sam had thought she was capable of. And honestly, it made her rather frightened to have her wandering the school. Star had agreed, and now added onto Sam's story with bits about the planning phases of the plot and how she'd come up with it in the first place.

When they finished their story the Principal removed her half-moon glasses and placed them on the desk in front of her, fixing them with a steady gaze. "You realize these are incredibly serious accusations." The told them.

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "I have the scars to prove it, if you want to see them."

"Are you telling me this sort of thing happens frequently?" The Principal's gaze turned to Star.

"Well... no, I've never seen it before." Star shook her head. "I've seen her humiliate a few people in various ways, among... among a few other things." She stopped herself, as if not wanting to go into further details of Paulina's exploits. "But I've never seen her like that. It was like she seriously wanted to hurt Sam."

"I see." The Principal nodded. "How many people witnessed this event?"

"Six." Sam replied. "Including Star."

"And how many would be willing to verify this story?" The principal asked. Sam opened her mouth, but stopped when she realized what the principal was getting at. Star was the only one. The rest were still blindly loyal to Paulina. And with Dash on their side, their sway with the rest of the school would be insurmountable.

Sam shook her head in disgust. "I'm telling you it happened!" Sam exclaimed. "You can't honestly be telling me there's nothing you can do!"

"I'm afraid it's a he-said she-said situation here, Sam." Mrs Archer replied. "I can call the authorities and have them launch an investigation, but they simply have you outnumbered."

"But... but the wounds! Look!" Sam lifted her hoodie enough to reveal her bandaged stomach. The gash had been shallow and was already beginning to heal nicely, but was still spread a good length across her stomach. "She did this! This has got to count for something!"

"You can prove it happened, but you can't prove who did it." The Principal replied. "Now I can call the authorities and suspend you all until they sort out the situation. But there's a change they'll decide you were lying, and you would have to bear the brunt of the punishment. Is that a risk you're willing to take?" She asked. Sam sat back in her chair, letting the hoodie fall back into place. Sam had already been suspended once; she couldn't afford to do it again. Her record would never recover. And despite her attitude, she did care about getting a good college degree.

"No. I can't." Sam shook her head in disgust and stood up from the chair. "Thanks for nothing." Sam kicked the wooden chair out of her way with a loud clatter and stomped toward the door. The Principal said nothing while Star rushed to follow her out into the hallway.

Once they had the door closed behind them Sam let out a ferocious scream and punched one fist into a nearby locker with an echoing crash. "That's the last time I try to handle things the right way." Sam stated angrily, rubbing her fist gingerly.

"What do we do now?" Star approached her worriedly.

Sam turned back to her. "I don't know. I guess we could go to the cops ourselves, but would they believe us either? After all, she is 'Paulina the Pretty' and she has "Dash the Super Footballman' backing her up." She growled bitterly. "I hate this society so much." She kicked another locker in frustration and turned to march down the hall. Star moved to follow close behind her, but they both stopped when they saw Paulina leaning against a locker up ahead, surrounded by her swarm of satellites.

"Look, it's the girl who thinks people will ever take her word over mine." She and the rest of her posse began to laugh uproariously. Sam growled, but didn't back down an inch when Paulina pushed off of the locker and approached with her hands perched cockily on her hips. "Guess you've already found out that I own this school. Nobody's ever going to believe your ridiculous lies."

"The only lie here is your 'perfectly flawless' face." Sam replied acidly. "Have you gotten that fixed yet?"

"Please, like I'd care what some chick in an ugly sweatshirt says." Paulina snorted haughtily and looked past her at Star. Sam felt Star creep sideways to hide behind Sam with her hands against her back as if hoping Paulina wouldn't see her. "As for you, 'friend'." Paulina spat out the word with a venomous sneer. "Nobody abandons me in such a horrible manner and gets away with it."

"Hey, why don't you back off and leave her alone?" Sam stepped forward, pushing Paulina back with one hand. Almost instantly Paulina's satellite swarm swept over them, surrounding them in the middle of the hallway. Sam didn't back down, staring into the other girls' eyes with a death glare. She could feel Star leaning against her back, her gaze flitting fearfully between the girls that had them surrounded.

"I guess I should expect a barbarian like you to want to get physical." Paulina smirked dangerously. For a moment, Sam was sure the girls were going to attack. There was no way the two of them could fight off a dozen girls at once.

"What is going on here?" The entire circle gasped and broke up instantly as a familiar, gruff voice approached from further down the hall. Paulina, Sam, and Star all looked at once to see Mr. Lancer marching down the hallway toward them. "Shouldn't you all be in class by now?"

"Yes sir, Mr. Lancer." Paulina said smoothly, stepping back away from Sam as if she'd just been brushing a piece of dust off of her shirt. "We'll have to continue our chat later on. We'll be catching up to you soon." She smiled slyly and gave her a wink before turning to walk away, gesturing for her swarm of satellites to follow after her. Sam finally allowed herself to breathe while Star emerged from behind her at last, looking positively freaked out.

"Miss Manson?" Sam looked up at the face of her old Math teacher. She no longer took classes with him, but he continued to be an important presence for all students of Casper High. "Do you have an explanation for me?"

"Yeah." Sam replied. "Society sucks." She continued her march down the hallway, with Star scrambling to keep up with her. Her tone must have been more forceful than she realized, because Mr. Lancer didn't follow or ask any more questions.

"What do we do?" Star asked in a frightened, shaky voice. "She never gathers her entire posse at once. Not unless she's really serious." Sam wished she could say what they were going to do. But she really had no idea.

* * *

The Specter Speeder made short work of the distance between Danny's place and the spot marked on the map clutched in Danny's hand. The Ghost Zone didn't exist anymore, but it was still a powerful personal hovercraft. It never occurred to him before, but his parents had invented some really cutting edge technology while they were busy trying to hunt ghosts. If they marketed this thing, they could make enough money to set Danny's children for life.

Enough of that, though. As he looked at the radar scanner on the dashboard he could see that he was fast approaching the coordinates on the map. He leaned up to look out the front windshield and scan the ground below. All he could see was a nice glade interspersed with rocks and hills. This was supposed to be the place though, so Danny turned off the ship's autopilot and turned to head down toward the ground.

He touched down on the top of a nearby hill and left the Specter Speeder, stepping out into the gentle grass that swayed in the cool afternoon breeze. He walked forward a few steps, but stopped when suddenly a piece of the grassy field before him slid open into a hole slightly larger around them his body. Out of the hole rose a piece of steel, upon which rode a man wearing a snow-white suit.

His dark brown skin stood in stark contrast to his snow-white suit, and his thin frame looked strange for a government agent. A pair of thick sunglasses obscured his eyes from view underneath a shaved head.

"Not a ghost, today?" The man asked. His voice sounded similar to the man on the phone. This must have been Agent Windsbury.

"No sense in hiding from you guys, is there?" Danny walked down the hill toward the man, but stopped before getting on the elevator. "Where's Danielle?"

"Down below, of course. Come with me, and I'll take you to her." The man replied. Danny stepped on the platform, and almost instantly it sank into the floor, dropping down through a long steel tube lit by lights along the walls all the way down. "Approximately nine months ago, the girl in question collapsed without warning in a shelter for homeless and runaway children on the edge of Townsville USA. Doctors who examined her could find nothing wrong with her, but they did find something unusual. Which was when we were contacted."

"Nine months..." Danny said softly to himself. That would be around the time he'd faced the Reaper, otherwise known as Azrael, the creator of the Ghost Zone. Could there be some connection between Azrael and Dani's collapse?

"Any theories?" The Man in White asked.

"Maybe. Let me see her first." Danny replied. The Man in White nodded as the elevator panel began to slow. It came to a stop and the side of the elevator opened up in front of them into a long metal hallway that stretched farther than he could imagine, and branched off into a countless number of side passages. "What, did you hollow out the entire planet for this place?"

"Makes it difficult for prisoners to escape. Stay close." The Guy in White walked down the hall. Danny was getting increasingly nervous the more he went through this. Why wasn't there anyone else around here? If this was a government facility, shouldn't there be more people wandering the halls. It seemed strange that only one guy was leading him through this place. Maybe they just didn't want to alarm Danny.

They weaved their way through the cold steel hallways, until Danny had no idea which way they were going. He supposed it didn't matter. He still had some limited use of his ghost powers outside of Ghost Mode, so he could always make his way straight up if he needed to. It would take some time, but he could make it. Probably.

Soon the Man in White stopped outside of a solid steel door set into the wall and turned back to Danny. He raised one hand and pressed it against a panel on the wall, which flashed around his fingers for a moment before the door slid open into the wall. Danny looked inside, but it was too dark to see anything. Danny looked up at the agent again with a suspicious look.

"She's inside." The man said. Danny didn't like this, but he had to find Dani. So he turned and walked into the small, ill-lit room.

When he entered some motion-sensors must have kicked in, because an overhead light flared to life, illuminating Dani lying on a bed in the middle of the room, looking just as she had in the picture. Danny approached the bed quickly, looking down at her face. She looked like she was asleep. It was a peaceful sight, but to stay this way for over nine months...?

Danny reached up slowly with one hand and placed his fingers against her cheek. It was warm to the touch. He wasn't sure why he expected it to be cold and lifeless, Agent Windsbury had told him she was still alive. Just asleep for a very long time. He moved his hand to her lips, feeling her steady breath brushing against the palm of his hand before he moved his hands up to her closed eyes, placing a hand over each eye. Gently he pried them apart, and stepped back in shock.

In the empty pools of her eyes, he could see a myriad of bright, vivid colors swirling across the orbs of her eyes. More colors than he could name shifting and weaving around each other like dancers on a ballroom floor. They shone with such strength there was no way they could be a hallucination. Though he still wouldn't rule out the possibility that he was going insane.

"Do you see something?" Agent Windsbury walked up behind him, looking down at Danny's body. Danny looked up at him in shock, then back down at Dani's body. The Guys in White couldn't see it? It took him only a moment to think about what the difference was. Danny's Ghost Powers must be what let him see this. Which only further begged the question, what was it?

"I still need time to examine her." Danny replied guardedly.

"Of course. I'll return shortly." Agent Windsbury nodded his head and turned to leave, closing the door behind him. Danny approached his 13-year-old clone and reached out slowly, putting one tender hand on her forehead. Whatever those lights were, he wouldn't let her stay like this, he would find a way to help her.

* * *

Sam stomped down the sidewalk toward Danny's house, fully intent on giving him a piece of her mind for not showing up. He'd promised to help her confront the principal and Paulina, she couldn't believe he would just skip school like this and leave her hanging. If he wasn't in some kind of life-or-death situation, she was about to put him in one herself.

And then there was Star, who'd been freaking out all day ever since the confrontation with Paulina earlier that morning. She was walking close behind Sam with her hands wringing nervously in front of her, glancing at shadows as they passed as if they would lash out and attack them. Sam glanced over her shoulder at her, then turned to face forward again, trying to just let it go until finally she snapped and whirled on Star.

"Okay, this needs to stop now!" Sam snapped.

Star nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden movement. "Gah! What!?"

"Why have you been hovering behind me all day? I'm not going to attack you if you walk beside me you know." Sam told her irritably.

"Oh..." Star blushed and looked down as if being scolded by her mother. "Paulina always hated it when people walked beside her. She said it took away from her presence." Sam stared at her, stunned. Paulina had really messed this girl up, hadn't she? She didn't even want to walk beside Sam because of what Paulina always wanted. Sam never saw it coming. She always looked so confident and snooty when Paulina was around.

Sam's expression softened and she rubbed one of her arms guiltily. She hadn't meant to make Star feel bad. "Sorry I yelled, but do I look like Paulina to you?" Star shook her head. "Then come on, walk beside me. I don't mind, really." Star nodded and walked up beside her, looking uncomfortable even with that small act. "You were with Paulina for a long time, weren't you?"

"Since I moved here five years ago." Star nodded.

"Well, try to relax. Forget everything she ever told you, and just be yourself, alright?" Sam smiled slightly. Star smiled and nodded back and Sam turned to walk again, pleased to note that Star was now walking shoulder-to-shoulder with her. They walked along the sidewalk for a while until they noticed a girl leaning against the wall ahead of them with her hands jammed into her pockets. Sam was positive she'd seen her in the crowd earlier on in the hallway.

Sam stopped a small distance away. "Hm. A girl who hates us standing alone right beside a dark alley." Sam glanced sidelong at Star. "Are you stupid enough to fall for this?"

"Nuh-uh." Star shook her head vigorously.

"Then come on." Sam turned to walk away, but there were already four girls standing behind them with their arms crossed over their chests. "You know, I am getting so sick of being jumped and carried places."

"Sorry, but you have some things to answer for." One of the girls narrowed her eyes at Star. "Both of you do." Star gulped and slinked back slowly, but the girl from beside the alley walked up behind her, putting her hands on her shoulder. Before Sam could say anything else the five girls were on them, trying to force them toward the alley with their hands grabbing at their arms. Sam tried to struggle, but she couldn't fight off two girls at once.

Sam and Star were dragged a short ways into the alley, into a larger opening between four buildings. Paulina was standing straight in the middle of the open area, rubbing her arms and shivering in disgust.

"It's about time you got here. This place is making me nauseous. But it's so worth it." Paulina grinned and walked up to the two girls, whose arms were still being restrained by the other four girls. Paulina looked at Sam curiuously and walked up to her. Sam turned her head to look away from her. "What's the matter, Sam? No snappy remarks? No smart-aleck comments?" She grinned in surprise and put a hand on Sam's chin, pulling her head forward to face her. "Are you afraid of me?"

Sam didn't respond, keeping her lips shut in a tight line. "Maybe you're finally getting the message not to mess with me." Paulina slapped her across the cheek and stood back, turning her attention to Star. "A message someone else should have learned a long time ago." She approached Star, who was shaking like a leaf in the grip of the girls holding onto her. "What happened, Star? I thought you were my friend."

"See... the thing is... I..." Star stammered. "I'm sorry Paulina. It was stupid, I should never have done it." She lowered her head to her chest. "I'm sorry!"

"Awww." Paulina approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Sam looked past her and noticed three of the other girls holding small bats in their hands, dangling them by their sides calmly as if just waiting for the signal. "You've been there for me for a long time. You've been my best friend." Paulina frowned. "Do you have any idea how much it hurt to have you turn on me for THIS loser?"

"I'm so sorry Paulina." Star's voice shuddered. Sam wasn't sure if she was genuine or if she was scared to death. Though Sam couldn't honestly blame her if she was frightened. "Please, I'll do anything you want. Let me come back."

"Come back?" Paulina shook her head and stood up straight as the girls behind her moved closer. "You already turned against me Star. You hurt me... nobody hurts me, Star. Nobody." She stepped back away from her. Star tried to move back, but the girls behind her held her tight as the ones in front of her moved closer, holding their small bats in both hands.

Sam suddenly yanked her arm out of the grasp of one of her distracted captors, bringing it around like a rocket to slam her fist into her other captor's face. The girl yelped in pain and surprise as she collapsed to the ground and Sam took off at a sprint, darting down the alley away from the crowd.

"Hey, get her back!" She heard Paulina roar. Sam could hear several pairs of footsteps charging after her, pushing her to pump her legs even harder down the long alley. She slid out onto the sidewalk, startling several passersby as she turned to charge along the sidewalk. With a glance back, she realized that the girls were no longer following. Of course, they wouldn't chase her along the city streets on broad daylight. That would be suicide.

Sam turned suddenly and charged into the door of a nearby restaurant, panting as she looked frantically around at all the patrons. "Please, I need to use a phone! There's a girl in trouble near here!" She exclaimed. What little faith she had in humanity was punched in the gut when the patrons all turned back to their meals simultaneously. "I'm serious! I need a phone!"

"Here." Sam whirled when she heard a voice right behind her. A woman with long, shining blonde hair and glittering blue eyes was holding out her cellular phone, giving her a kind smile. "You can use mine."

"Thank you!" Sam grabbed the phone and quickly dialed 911, raising it to her ear. She told the police what was happening in a rushed jumble, trying to get in everything before she finally gave up and just told them where to go. When she was finished she hung up and held the phone out to the patiently waiting woman. "Here, thank you so much. I should get going now."

"Of course. I hope your friend is okay." The woman replied with a courteous nod.

"Yeah, me too." Sam gulped and turned to dart out of the restaurant, running down the sidewalk with her heart racing. She couldn't believe this. She knew Paulina was crazy, but what was she doing to Star right now? She couldn't leave Star there with her, she had to get back as soon as possible. Thankfully, she hadn't run far, and within minutes she was running back down the alley.

She moved back into the open area behind the buildings, skidding to a stop when she saw that it was empty now, save for Star lying in the dead center, her skin and clothing darkened and muddy from lying on the alleyway floor. "Oh man... Star!" Sam ran over to her, then fell to her knees and put her hands on her shoulder, shaking her furiously. "Star, wake up! Come on, please wake up!"

"Uhn..." Star groaned as Sam gently pulled her onto her back. Her face only had a couple of bruises on it. Paulina must have freaked when she realized Sam would be calling the cops and only stayed for a very short time. Still, Star looked to be in pretty bad shape, and in pretty intense pain. "Hey Sam..."

"Geeze..." Sam touched one of the bruises on her cheek, then jerked back when Star winced in pain. "This is getting way out of hand."

"I shouldn't have left her." Star shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. "She was counting on me to be her friend... I brought this on myself..."

"Don't say that!" Sam yelled. "Paulina doesn't deserve a friend like you. She doesn't deserve any friends. She doesn't even deserve to be called HUMAN if this is how she treats people." Sam put a hand on the back of Star's neck, holding her up carefully. "You do not deserve this. You deserve good friends who'll be there for you and support you, not order you around and use you like a commodity." Sam smiled as the sound of sirens began to approach from the distance. "Now relax... we'll get you some help soon. And we'll find a way to make it all better. I promise."

* * *

Danny sat beside the unconscious form of his young clone, watching her face as she slept on without end. Her eyes were closed once again, he couldn't stand looking at those lights any longer. They only brought about more questions, and as much as he wished he could do something to help her, it didn't look like there was anything he could do. Maybe if he took her home, Jazz could find a way to help her. Jazz was way smarter than he was, after all.

"You come up with anything?" The voice of Agent Windsbury asked from behind him. Danny looked back at him over his shoulder.

"I can't think of anything. But I may be able to help her when we get back to Amity Park." Danny stood up and gently lifted the girl into his arms.

"I'm afraid we can't allow that." The agent said. Danny closed his eyes. He knew it. He knew they would pull something like this.

"You said you just wanted to help her. No tricks." Danny replied.

"We do want to help her." Agent Windsbury replied. "That doesn't mean we want you running around on your own unsupervised. You're still a threat to those around you, as some interesting security camera footage showed from nine months ago." Danny didn't respond, staring straight ahead with Danielle in his arms. "We don't think you meant to do it... but you did it. And you are a danger this world cannot afford."

"So you used her to lure me here." Danny said emotionlessly.

"No, we were really hoping you could help her. That it would get you here was just killing two birds with one stone."

"So what now? Are you going to attack me? Try to bring me down? I don't want to hurt anyone, I just want to go home and try to help Danielle."

"We can't allow that. And I think, deep down, you don't want that either." Danny didn't respond as Agent Windsbury's footsteps approached him from behind. "We saw it all. We saw the destruction you left behind throughout the city. We saw you transform at the end. We know everything that happened. What do you think would happen if you did it again? What if you slipped and that monster was let loose in your hometown? With those you love."

"I won't let that happen." Danny replied, though his voice was far less forceful.

"We can't take your word for it." The agent stepped back away from him again. Danny turned around at last, looking back as the door behind Agent Windsbury was flung further open, at least half a dozen Guys in White agents flooding into the room. Danny looked around at them calmly as they raised their weapons, every single barrel orienting right on him.

"Turn yourself in, Danny Fenton. It's for your own protection. We can try to help you overcome your little problem." Agent Windsbury told him sternly.

"I think you'll understand why I have a hard time believing anything you say." Danny retorted. Suddenly he whirled, kicking Dani's bed over and lurching into it, using a tiny portion of his Ghost Power to phase through it. A burst of automatic gunfire erupted from behind him, and bullets plunged into the bed behind him as he huddled down, clutching Dani tightly to his chest to shield her from any possible ricochet.

In a few moments the gunfire subsided, leaving a legion of bullet holes in the wall before him. He heard a pair of footsteps approach the bed from the other side with a calm, steady stride.

"Don't throw your life away, Danny. You still have such a long life to live. It would be a shame for you to end it now." Agent Windsbury told him.

He was right. Danny couldn't fight his way out like this. Not without his full powers. At the thought, he could feel the voice inside of him, whispering in the back of his mind. It wanted to be unleashed, to break through the barricade behind him. It certainly could, it could save Danny. But he couldn't let it...

But what about Danielle? Danny looked down into her unconscious, peaceful face. It wasn't just Danny's life at stake here, Danielle's was too. He couldn't trust anything the Guys in White said, they could hurt her. For all he knew, they did this to her in the first place. He closed his eyes in deep thought. He would let them hurt him... he would let them take him prisoner for the rest of his life rather than unleash that demon on the world. But he would not let them hurt the people closest to him.

When his eyes opened again, they flashed with blood red energy.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Hell breaks loose when the Guys in White are forced to take on the full might of Dark Danny. Danny may be the most powerful ghost ever to exist, but the Guys in White have spent almost a year preparing for this confrontation. Danny's life may never be the same again. Meanwhile, Star is set to spend the night in the hospital for observation, and Sam is growing more and more frustrated with the authorities dragging their feet or simply looking the other way.

Episode 05: She's A Phantom Part 2


	5. She's A Phantom Part 2

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Danny received a strange message from the Guys in White, telling him that they have Danielle in their care and that they need his help to awaken her. But it was a trap! And now Danny is stuck in the Guys in White compound with Danielle unconscious in his arms. To give up or unleash his dark side to fight back. Danny chose to fight and release his darkness. Meanwhile, Paulina grew even angrier than ever over Star's defection, and an attack of revenge left Star grievously injured in a back alley despite Sam's best efforts to get her help.

Haunted Legacies Episode 05: She's A Phantom Part 2

Special Agent Windsbury stepped forward on the cold steel floors of the Guys in White compound, one hand sliding inside of his jacket to finger the gun tucked neatly inside of it. He watched the bed tipped over on its side on the other side of the room with a suspicious gaze. Daniel Fenton had been hiding back there for far too long. Something was going to happen. Which was precisely what he had been waiting for.

"Daniel Fenton." Agent Windsbury said again in a loud, firm voice. "Give yourself up. We promise not to harm you or-" he stopped when he heard a strange sound echo through the room. It was soft at first, but it quickly grew to massive proportions as a shockwave of energy blew the bed across the room. Windsbury threw himself flat on the ground, barely avoiding the bed before it slammed into two other agents behind him, knocking them flat against the wall where they fell unconscious with strangled groans.

The force of the strange wail continued to pour through the room, ripping at the bodies of the other agents who remained standing. Some fired off a couple of shots, but they flew wide of their mark before at last they too were swept into the powerful energy wave. They slammed back against the wall with enough force to knock them unconscious with a single blow, pinning them there until at last the wail began to subside.

Agent Windsbury raised his head from the floor slowly, looking across the room where a white-caped figure was gently laying the body of the ghost-girl they'd been studying on the floor. The figure then rose to its feet, the white cloak flowing down its body around its ankles as a pair of blood red eyes surveyed the area around it. It took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh while a broad, eager grin spread across its face.

Windsbury moved one hand up to his lips, speaking into his watch. "The ghost is loose." He put his hands on the floor and climbed to his feet. Danny turned to watch him, crossing his arms over his chest with a cocky smirk on his lips. "I knew we would be seeing you here today."

"Then you should have called in sick." Danny's smirk stayed on as he let out a chuckle. "You humans are stupider than I ever gave you credit for if you thought it would be a good idea to call me out."

"We humans can be quite deadly if given the proper time to prepare." Agent Windsbury replied smoothly.

"Prepare all you want. When the time comes, humans always choke. It's one of the many frailties that come from being human." Danny's lips curled into a broad grin and he lunged forward suddenly, his hooked fingers rising to lash out. Windsbury reached behind him, pressing a button on his watch to turn on a device embedded in the ceiling. Suddenly the ghost howled in shock and surprise as it slammed into the ghost shield, sending a powerful burst of electrical energy running through his body before he flew back to the floor. The ghost raised his head, glaring angrily at Windsbury, who just smiled back.

"Like I said. All we need is time to prepare." With that Windsbury turned to run out of the room, turning to run down the hall. He could already hear the wail echoing through the empty steel hallways of the Guys in White base, followed by the crackle of the Ghost Shield's systems failing. He quickened his pace down the hall; daring only one glance back to make sure the ghost was following. He couldn't see it... but that didn't mean it wasn't there.

He emerged into a large conference room, where many other Guys in White agents were waiting with massive blasters held in both hands. Windsbury whirled around in front of the table, reaching into his jacket to withdraw his gun, holding it expertly before him while he waited for the ghost to show his pale blue face. The agents all waited in tense silence, holding their weapons at the ready.

"The back!" One of the agents shouted suddenly. The others all whirled, aiming their guns toward the back wall, where Danny was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. Suddenly another Danny emerged from the wall beside him, followed by a third. Windsbury turned his gun to the side when another Danny emerged from the east wall, then a fifth from the west wall, surrounding the agents in the middle of the room.

A bout of deep, mirthless laughter pulled their attention back to the main entrance of the room, where a sixth ghost was standing with his blood red eyes glittering maliciously. "Is this supposed to be an ambush? This is the best you ghost hunters can do against a ghost? I weep to have ever been one of you."

"A soulless monster can weep?" Agent Windsbury pulled the sunglasses off of his face, tucking them into one pocket. "That would be a first for me." He raised his weapon in front of him again, holding it in both hands. "If you're so confident in your ability to take out a couple of measly humans, then come do it instead of posturing. You look like a damn fool."

"You ask for death. And I'm more than happy to deliver it." Danny grinned and lunged forward, all six of them ripping through the room toward the agents gathered in the center. But they began to dodge to the side mocking as the agents opened fire in unison.

The sound of gunfire roared through the underground complex, mixed with bursts of electrical pulses and laser-blasts that ripped into the solid steel walls with deafening impacts. The Guys in White stood in the center of the room around the long conference table, their weapons firing in every direction as the six forms of the ghost moved around them, each of them laughing that infuriating laugh, as if they found the situation incredibly funny.

Agent Windsbury ducked quickly when one of the ghostly forms lunged at him, one glowing fist flying straight at his head. He raises his weapon up under the punch, pushing the nozzle of the gun up into the ghost's chin and pulling the trigger without hesitation. The bullet plunged through the ghost's head without doing any damage, coming out the top as if he wasn't even there.

The ghost grinned darkly and swept its fist downward, knocking the gun out of his hand and sending him sliding across the polished steel floor straight into the wall with a thunderous crash. The agent grunted in pain, going flat against the wall before collapsing down again, trying to push himself up to all fours. As he looked up, the ghost with the blood red eyes was moving to stand over him.

Before he could speak the agent suddenly threw himself forward, thrusting his shoulder into the ghost's gut and shoving it back into the table roughly. "Agents, begin Plan 67! Go!" Agent Windsbury whirled and ran for the door, followed by the other agents who were still standing. Several were lying against the walls with their limbs twisted in sickening, unnatural ways.

Danny's haunting laugh followed. "Plan 67 must be code for run like a pitiful coward. You can't escape me." Agent Windsbury looked back in time to see Danny calmly emerge from the board room, taking a deep breath and, within a second, releasing it in a massive mail that swept through the width of the hallway. It slammed into the agents and swept all ten of them bdown through the hallway like ants caught in a flooding drain.

The sickening sound of bones cracking could be heard spread among the yells and screams of his companions as they slammed into the walls and floors. Agent Windsbury curled himself into a ball to absorb the impact of his own body hitting the ground, rolling straight into the back wall in one of the many command centers that helped keep the Guys in White organization running.

He grunted in pain and pushed himself up slowly, trying not to look at the battered and broken bodies of his friends and coworkers littering the floor and wall around him. The Guys in White agents who were already waiting in the control room looked calm and determined, however. As well trained as any government agent to remain calm in the face of horrific circumstances.

"Is it ready?" Windsbury asked with a breathless, but demanding, tone.

"Five minutes, sir." One of the other agents replied.

"Then bring the Proton Packs." Windsbury pushed himself up off of the wall as Danny Phantom moved down the long hallway with the cloak flowing through the air behind him. He casually stepped over the bodies of the fallen agents like they were logs in a creek, spreading his arms out to the side as if begging for another attack.

"I hope you haven't given me all you've got. Or else you're a greater fool than I ever believed." Danny Phantom raised his palms upward with a broad grin on his face that was lit up by the ghostly green ecto-energy building in his hands.

"Do you ever stop being so smug?" Agent Windsbury gestured quickly to his agents with one hand, who suddenly emerged from rooms hidden off to the side with powerful mechanical backpacks strapped to their backs, hooked by a hose to a powerful weapon clutched in each of their hands. They opened fire without another spoken command, powerful streams of glittering gold and green energy that lashed out at the ghost like a series of whips.

"What!?" Danny Phantom howled in surprise as the energy struck him, engulfing him and wrapping around his body like a rope of energy. Several more streams joined the first few, and they slowly lifted him off the ground. "You... you can't do this to me!"

"Looks like we can." Agent Windsbury straightened his tie calmly. "Old designs, but still very effective." He cast a quick glance off to one side. Three minutes thirty seconds until the device would be ready. Then they would only get one shot with it. If they missed, it was over.

He blinked and looked up in shock when he heard Danny Phantom howl, his head thrown back like a wild beast while his arms struggled to move. Slowly they pushed outward, pushing the streams of energy open along with them while a vortex of glittering green energy began to form around him. His snow-white hair turned upward, and seemed to burst into raging white flames that grew with the energy field.

"The beams are going to break!" One of the agents shouted in surprise.

"Hold him as long as you can!" Windsbury whirled and ran back across the room, running for one of the computer consoles. He stopped and swept his fingers across the keyboard, desperately trying to speed up the process. Only two and a half minutes left, but it wouldn't matter if they were all dead before it finished charging.

He looked up when a massive explosion of energy erupted from Danny's direction. Without warning the backpacks on the Guys in White agents exploded at once as a feedback loop fed into them, sending the agents flying to the ground like rag dolls, limp and burned from the force of the explosions. Danny Phantom floated down toward the ground behind the smoke that rose from the destroyed backpacks, no longer looking amused as his lips curled into a snarl and his hair continued to burn with white fire.

A fleet of Guys in White agents instantly stepped between Windsbury and the ghost, holding up rifles, pistols, laser-blasters, or anything else they could find to use as weapons.

"Two minutes left." Windsbury told them firmly.

"We'll give it to you." One of the agents replied as they all raised their weapons. Windsbury nodded and moved to wait by the console as they began to move forward, a well-coordinated army that quickly had the ghost surrounded from all sides, their weapons aimed straight at him.

"Arrogant INSECTS!" Danny screamed angrily and thrust his hands out to the sides. Massive ecto-blasts ripped through the crowd of agents on either side of him, punching through the crowd to tear holes straight into the solid steel and Earth of the walls. The remaining agents' gunfire erupted all at once, but every single bullet and blast went straight through the ghostly being, plunging into the walls harmlessly. Still they didn't stop. The weapons' muzzles continued to flash and the ecto-blasts continued to roar, tearing through the agents and the sensitive equipment that dotted the room.

"Ten seconds." Windsbury quickly tapped out the security clearance code that opened a massive compartment in the ceiling, allowing a cannon easily as long as he was tall to drop down, its sides glowing with powerful stored energy. The cannon swiveled on its mount, orienting on the ghost in the center of the thinning crowd of Guys in White agents.

Danny thrust one palm forward, the massive blast blowing one of the agents back through the room straight into one of the many desks, his back cracking and bending into a sickening angle before the body slowly slid to the floor. "Three..." A few remaining agents tried to close the distance, but Danny whirled and swept his arm out, a blast of deep blue energy sweeping them all into the sky. When they hit the steel floor, their frozen bodies shattered like fragile sculptures. "Two..." Danny whirled to stare at the last two agents, his blood red eyes narrowed like daggers and his lip curled into a vicious snarl. But they didn't back down. Danny marched forward, ignoring the bullets that flew harmlessly through his body. He lashed out with both hands, gripping them both by the throat as he floated into the air. "One..." Danny hefted them into the air, then viciously thrust them both back, sending them hurtling down into the computer equipment, which shattered and began to spark under the weight of their limp bodies. He whirled on Agent Windsbury a single second too late.

The cannon in the ceiling fired an explosive blast of green energy straight into Danny's chest with enough force to send his scrawny form hurtling into the floor with a bone-crushing thud. He slid across the polished steel and slammed into the wall, where he howled in shock, surprise, and pain as the energy continue to flow through his body long after the beam had stopped.

Windsbury left the console to approach Danny Phantom, drawing another gun tucked carefully inside of his pants as he neared. Danny was trying to climb to his knees, suddenly letting out a scream. The agent noticed a strange white mist floating from between his lips, lifting into the air as a solid vapor before suddenly whirling away from them down the nearby hallway. Danny hung his head weakly, his body no longer sparking, but he was still clearly drained.

"You..." Danny's voice was filled with hatred as he lifted his head, his breath coming in deep gasps. "What did you... do to me?"

"Your girl back there has a strange condition in her DNA. A condition that causes her DNA to break down slowly at the molecular level." Windsbury told him calmly. "We spent these nine months replicating the effect in the form of an ecto-virus that creates a similar, but accelerated, effect."

"A virus...?" Danny's eyes went wide.

"Just for you, ghost-boy." Windsbury told him calmly. Danny raised one hand, a powerful blast of ectoplasm appearing in his palm, but then he looked down and saw his body's essence slowly seeping onto the floor around him. He let the ectoplasm die and looked up at the agent again, his lips curling into a sneer. "Kill me if you want. It won't change the inevitable."

"I will defeat this... and I will kill you." With that, Danny Phantom vanished before his eyes. Windsbury looked around for a moment, expecting another attack, but it never came. No doubt he would go into hiding to search for a cure. That was just fine. There was no outrunning death for him.

* * *

A soft groan escaped Danny Fenton's lips as he opened his eyes. He found himself lying on a cold steel floor, in the center of a room that looked like it could be a hospital. But the bed was lying against the wall beside the door, and there were no windows or anything he would expect to find. He sat up, spending a few minutes trying to remember what he was doing last. He couldn't remember... he remembered holding Dani in his arms but then... then everything went blank. 

It was only when he stood up that he realized he was wearing a paper hospital gown. That was pretty strange, he thought. It felt strange... in fact, everything felt strange. Looking down, he could see the gown was pressed outward from his chest. Once again, that was pretty strange. He reached up curiously to feel the mounds. What the heck was going on?

He stumbled forward stiffly, his body refusing to cooperate like it should. He felt like he'd just slept for months on end. He stopped as he passed a mirror set close by on the wall, turning to look into it. For a moment he thought it wasn't a mirror, but a door, then he realized he could see the same machine in the reflection that stood behind him. He approached the mirror slowly, staring at the face that stared back. A familiar yet... very feminine face. It wasn't his face... it was Danielle's.

He let out a pitched scream and stumbled back away from the mirror until his back slammed into the far wall and he could go no farther. Why was he looking at a mirror with Dani in it? Where was his body? What was going on?

His head whirled to the side when he heard a pair of footsteps moving down the hall toward his room. Danny looked down at himself quickly, clenching his fists. This wasn't his body... and he didn't feel the ghost in his mind anymore. He felt strong, in control. So he knelt down and, for the first time in months, let the ectoplasm burst forth from inside of his body.

His body shifted instantly in a ring of light to that of Dani Phantom, and his body faded into invisibility just before Agent Windsbury walked into the room. He stopped at the door and scanned the room, his eyebrow quirking up above the rim of his dark sunglasses. "She must have finally awakened." He shook his head. "This is going to make things even more complicated." He turned to leave.

"You have no idea, dude." Danny said softly before lifting off from the ground. It felt good using his full powers again without worrying about becoming psychotic, but it was still clouded by a whole slew of questions that needed to be answered. For now though, he turned intangible and darted up through the ceiling, turning in the sky to head toward the Specter Speeder, and then on toward home.

* * *

Sam sat on one of the chairs that lined the hospital lobby, tapping her hands on her knees while she waited for word on Star's condition. It didn't seem like the beating she took was all that bad, it was mostly the shock of it that kept Star on her back. But surprises had a way of popping up from things like this, so they decided to check her out regardless. As if worrying about that wasn't bad enough, Sam had tried to call Danny and get him down there, but his mother said he hadn't been home all morning. He hadn't been at school either... so where did he go? 

She looked up when two figures came rushing through the door, a pair of women Sam didn't recognize who rushed up to the hospital counter. The older blonde woman put her hands on the counter, looking frightened and frantic as she spoke. "Where is she? Where's my Star? Is she okay?" She demanded.

"Miss Light." The nurse put her hands up and nodded. "Your daughter is fine, she's only in the back for a precautionary examination. We've found no major damage, it's just a precaution."

"Thank goodness." Star's mother sighed in relief. "Can I see her? Please?"

"Of course, please come right this way." The nurse smiled. "But we can't allow too many people back here, so you'll have to come alone."

"I'll be fine, go." The younger woman, who had long midnight-black hair and a pair of shining blue eyes, said with a nervous smile. The older woman nodded and turned to follow the nurse into the back, leaving the younger girl to look around the hospital lobby, wringing her hands in front of her.

Sam watched her for a moment, then stood from her chair and approached the woman. "Hey. You're here to see Star?"

"Huh? Yeah, I am." The woman nodded. "You know her?"

"Yeah, I'm her friend." Sam held out her hand. "I'm Sam."

"I'm Moon, her sister." Moon shook her hand politely. "Do you know what happened to her?"

"Yeah. She got on somebody's bad side."

Moon shook her head. "Paulina. I always knew that girl was trouble." She looked over at Sam. "You the one who called the police?" Sam nodded. "Thank you. I don't know what happened to her. Ever since we moved to Amity Park she's been running with those horrible people. She used to be such a considerate person."

"Well..." Sam trailed off, not wanting to say anything about Star's problems. It wasn't her place to tell Moon anything about it. "Just some things that we have to deal with on our own, I guess. I'll do what I can to help her though." Moon gave her a curious look, but simply nodded in response. "If we want to help her right now, we should try to deal with Paulina. I'm not sure she's going to stop. It's like she's become obsessed with this sort of thing."

"Have you tried going to the authorities?" Moon asked.

"Yeah. Our principal refused to do anything. And if she doesn't believe us, there's no guarantee the police would either." Sam growled. "After all, we're talking about the word of the popular kids against the word of a couple of social rejects. If we're going to do something about her, I don't think the authorities are going to help us."

"You're not suggesting some kind of insane vigilante thing are you?" Moon asked.

"If that's what it takes." Sam said. She looked down at her skirt when her cellular phone started to ring. "Excuse me." She lifted it from her discreet pocket and answered, raising it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Sam, you might want to get over here." Jazz's voice was rushed and nervous. "Something's happened to Danny."

"Oh my God. What is it? Did someone hurt him?" Sam asked worriedly.

"Just... just get over here." Jazz said.

"I'll be right there." Sam hung up. "I'm sorry to do this, but I think something happened to my boyfriend. I should get over there."

"Go ahead and go, I'll tell Star you stayed here for her." Moon replied with a smile.

"Thanks. I'll be back as soon as I can." Sam smiled and waved before turning to jog out of the hospital, running along the sidewalk toward the Fenton Works building as fast as she could. Jazz had sounded freaked out. Jazz never freaks out. Her heart pounding faster, Sam quickened her pace until she was sprinting down the sidewalk when the building finally came into view up ahead.

She charged up the few steps to the door and threw her weight against it, barging into the building with her heart pounding. "Where is he!?" Sam demanded. She blinked when two figures stood up from the couch, watching her. One was Jazz, looking confused and freaked out all at once. The other was a face she hadn't seen in a long time. "Danielle? How did you get here?"

"It's... it's not Danielle. It's me. Danny." Danielle said with a slight smile. Sam stared at the girl like she was crazy, looking past her at Jazz, then focusing on the girl again. "I um... I love you." Danielle grinned nervously. Sam blinked slowly, cocking her head to the side. Was she saying what Sam thought she was saying? There was no way, there was just no way. It didn't make sense. It didn't compute.

So she did the only thing that made sense at the moment. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she collapsed to the floor in a heap of body parts. Before she fell completely unconscious she heard Danielle say "I guess that's the best reaction I could've hoped for, huh?"

The darkness seemed comforting for a while, until she finally was able to hear a pair of voices speaking from over her. "So you have no idea where your real body is?" Jazz's voice asked.

"No, I don't have a clue. I searched the Guys in White's base, but it wasn't there." Danielle's high-pitched voice spoke Danny's thoughts. A concept that almost made Sam pass out again, but she found she couldn't sleep any more just now.

"This is going to be a huge problem." Jazz's voice replied. "Hey, I think she's coming around." Sam stirred and opened her eyes slowly, wanting to see Danny's normal, boyish face looking down at her. But she found that her head was resting on Danielle's lap, looking up into her baby-blue eyes, so similar to Danny's and yet so different at the same time. Jazz leaned down over her from the other side with a concerned smile. "How are you feeling? Any better?"

"What... the heck...?" Sam sputtered.

"Long story short, we have no clue." Danny replied with his... her... his... what was he now? A boy or a girl? Sam was more comfortable with him as a boy, so that's how she decided to see him for now. Though it was difficult since the girl's body had matured significantly since she last saw it a little over a year ago. To the point where Sam now realized she was wearing Danny's normal clothes, and they hung only a little bit loose from her frame.

Sam pulled her head off of his lap and sat up on the couch, putting a hand to her head and spinning on the cushion to look back at him. "Somehow, I don't think we'll be able to hide this one from people for very long."

"That's one problem." Danny replied. "But at the moment, I'm more worried about the second one." He held up his hand and concentrated. A ball of massive ectoplasmic energy formed in the palm of his hand, pulsing with bright green energy. But as it grew in size, the skin of his arm began to shift and dematerialize before their eyes, small pieces of ectoplasmic essence dripping to the floor in front of him. He quickly let the energy ball dissipate, and his arm went back to normal.

"The imperfection... Vlad never fixed it." Sam looked at Danny's face with renewed concern. "You're falling apart!"

"And I have no idea what to do about it." Danny replied worriedly.

"Yes you do." Jazz told him. "There are only two people who might have the knowledge and skills necessary to fix this problem now. And they both live in this house."

"You don't mean..." Danny trailed off.

"We're not going to sit back and watch you fall apart. It's not like it's possible for you to hide a sex change from them anyway. If it has to come out, they should hear it from you. Now, before I'm forced to tell them myself." Jazz said logically. Danny looked down, wringing his hands nervously in front of him. Sam reached out with one hand, planning to comfort him... but her hand stopped before it could actually touch him, and pulled back to her side.

"Look, we'll be here for you." Sam said nervously, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand. Her eyes flicked around the room, looking anywhere but at Danny. She could see Hope lying on a mat on the floor a small distance away, kicking randomly up at some soft toys that dangled from a string over her head. Sam stood from the couch and approached the baby to kneel beside her, wanting to be anywhere but there at the moment.

The silence was deafening until Jazz spoke. "She's right, we WILL be here for you. I think they're downstairs, go ahead and do what you have to do. I'll be right down in a few minutes."

"I guess there's no other way..." Danny heaved a sigh and stood from the couch. Sam didn't turn away from the kicking baby until she heard his footsteps disappear into the kitchen on his way down to the basement laboratory where his parents worked. When he was gone Sam looked back over her shoulder at the kitchen entrance, and saw Jazz approaching with a concerned look on her face.

"Sam, are you okay?" Jazz asked.

"He's... he's just not supposed to be a girl. How can I... I mean..." Sam trailed off, looking away from Jazz. "It's just so weird. Well, things with him have always been weird somehow, but this... I just don't know. Can we turn him back somehow? We've got to be able to turn him back."

"I don't know if we'll be able to turn him back. We'll look for a way." Jazz sat down on the floor beside her, crossing her legs and reaching out to poke at the toys hanging above Hope, who stared up at them with wide eyes. "Still, I can only imagine how this must feel for you."

"I know I'm being stupid and selfish. He's still Danny, and this is such a huge thing. He needs me to be there for him, and I'm only going to be adding to his problems by acting like this." Sam said.

"I'm sure he'll understand why you're nervous." Jazz replied. "But you're right. Right now he needs us to be here to support him, regardless of our personal feelings. Let's save these worries for later, when we know that this isn't just a temporary change. You'll feel pretty silly if you get all worked up over something that's over in a week or two."

Sam chuckled lightly. "Yeah, you're right. That is pretty stupid." She stood up and straightened out her skirt. "Tell Danny I'll come back tonight and we can talk about all of this. For now I want to get back to the hospital. I should be able to get in to see Star by now."

"Star? Hospital? What happened?" Jazz asked.

"Paulina happened." Sam replied curtly. Jazz grimaced. "I'll give you the details later. For now, I don't think she should be alone."

"Then go. Danny will understand." Jazz told her.

"Thanks. I'll be back as soon as I can." Sam waved and turned to leave, heading out the front door and closing it a little too quickly to be normal. When she was outside the took a moment to compose herself. Jazz was right. This was only going to be temporary. It had to be. So it was ridiculous to get riled up about it. Only temporary... it was only temporary.

Repeating this to herself like a mantra, she turned to make her way back to the hospital. When she got there she entered the lobby to see Moon still leaning against the wall near the entrance to the back of the hospital. Sam pushed Danny and her concerns out of her mind as she approached the older girl, who cast her a smile and a wave once she saw her approach.

"Any word from the doctor?" Sam asked.

"Not yet. How's your boyfriend?" Moon asked.

Sam took a moment to carefully consider her response. "He's... alive." She replied.

"Um... glad to hear it." Moon gave a thumbs up. Sam wanted to slap herself in the face, but thankfully a doctor emerged form the back and approached them at a quick stride.

"Moon Light?" He said. "Your sister is currently recovering in room 116, and we think she's ready to receive visitors if you want to see her."

"Of course, thank you." Moon pushed off from the wall. "Come on Sam, I think you should come too." Sam nodded and turned to follow her into the back, moving through the sharply lit hospital until they reached the room the doctor mentioned. When they arrived Moon carefully gripped the knob in one hand and began to turn it, swinging the door slowly inward.

Star was lying in the hospital bed with the covers pulled up to her chest. She looked freshly bathed, so that the bruises and small cuts on her face and arms were more visible than they had been before, though there were small bandages covering each one. She and her mother both looked over as the door opened. Star still looked anxious and tired, but a smile spread across her lips when she saw Sam standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Sam." Star said warmly.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" Sam approached the bed, keenly aware of Moon hanging back near the door.

"A bit stiff, but I feel okay." Star replied softly. "Thanks for helping me. Guess you don't owe me for saving you anymore."

"Actually I still have one more rescue to go." Sam smiled humorously. Star chuckled. "They say you'll be able to leave tomorrow." Star nodded. "Maybe we should take in a movie or something. I hear that new vampire flick is pretty good."

"That sounds pretty good." Star replied with a smile.

"Great. I'll come by and pick you up." Sam stepped back, looking up at her family. "I should head out now, have some things to take care of before nighttime. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, and we'll catch that movie." Star smiled and waved. Sam waved back before turning to leave. When she emerged from the hospital the sharp orange glow of dusk was already dominating the sky.

Sam paused for a moment, then decided it was time to try to put an end tot his. Star didn't need any more surprises, and neither did she. So she turned to head down the sidewalk toward Paulina's house. As she neared, she came to a stop, her eyes going wide with shock when she saw two figures standing on the balcony...

* * *

"I swear, that girl is ticking me off more and more." Paulina's fist was clutched tightly around the hand running a brush through her hair, while her other hand held her hair back to be brushed. She had the phone receiver held between her shoulder and her cheek, staring at the mirror with a furious expression on her face. A sleek pink nightgown hung from her body, draping across the ornate wooden chair upon which she sat. "I don't feel like I got out nearly enough aggression today." 

"I don't know, Paulina. Maybe enough is enough. You've made your point." One of her friends spoke from the other side of the phone.

"This isn't about making a point. This is about making me feel better." Paulina grumped.

"Seriously Paulina, what's gotten into you? You've never been like this before." The girl on the phone said worriedly.

"Are you questioning me?" Paulina demanded.

"No, of course not!" The girl replied quickly. "You know what you're doing I'm sure, and I still trust you."

"Good. Now, about tomorrow's plans, I was thinking-"

"Paulina." Paulina yelped and whirled in her seat in surprise when she heard a strong, powerful voice. The phone clattered to the floor beside her and bounced toward the bed, where it lay forgotten. Paulina's heart raced as she scanned the room, but she couldn't see anyone in the room with her. She could've sworn the voice was standing right behind her. It also sounded rather familiar...

"Hello? Paulina?" Paulina heard her friend's voice from the phone, but she ignored it as she stood up from the chair.

"Who's there?" Paulina demanded.

"Help me, Paulina." The voice this time was strained, as if in intense pain. This time Paulina's eyes went wide, as she recognized the voice.

"It's you... it's really you!" She exclaimed. "What's wrong? Where are you?"

"Come to me." The voice this time came from the bedroom door. Paulina stood from her chair and approached the door, heading out into the hallway. Her bare feet plodded across the thick carpet as she emerged. "This way." The voice said from down the hall, so Paulina turned to follow it quickly, running her fingers across the wall beside her as she walked. "Hurry, please."

"What's wrong?" Paulina hurried down the hallway as quickly as she could, following the moving voice. At last the voice led her to a glass door that led to a balcony on the front of the house. Through the door she finally saw him, in the flesh. He looked different, but she still recognized him instantly. It was the ghost boy, and her heart soared when she saw him. But it sank when she realized he was huddled on the balcony weakly.

"Danny Phantom?" Paulina opened the balcony door quickly and rushed up to kneel down in front of him. It looked like some sort of glowing green liquid was leaking from his body to the floor beneath him. "Oh my gosh, what happened!?"

Danny Phantom's gaze rose from the balcony, his blood red eyes looking into hers. "I need you, Paulina. I need your help."

"I'll do anything for you." Paulina told him, unfazed by his new look. She saw a slight smirk spread across the ghost boy's face, but it quickly turned into a broad smile as he leaned forward heavily against her. Paulina yelped in surprise and wrapped her arms around his chest, holding him up. "Just tell me what to do! I promise, I'll do anything I can! I've been waiting for you to come back..."

"You'll do anything..." Danny said softly.

"Anything." Paulina replied worriedly. She felt his hands grip her shoulders so he could push away from her slightly, pulling back to stare into her eyes.

"Come with me." He told her seriously.

Paulina stared at him. It took her only a few moments to make up her mind before she nodded. "Anything for you." She wrapped her arms tightly around his back, clutching him. She smiled when she felt his arms close around her as well, holding her close to him.

"Then come. We need to rest. To plan." Danny closed his eyes, and they moved into the sky. Paulina looked down at the rapidly vanishing ground, spotting Sam watching them from the sidewalk with wide, stunned eyes. Paulina didn't care. Let the loser Goth wonder why Danny Phantom had chosen her. Because she was the best, brightest, and most beautiful girl in Amity Park.

* * *

"And that is what's been happening this last year and a half." Danny let his story end as he sat on the desk in front of his parents, who were both staring at him like he was a space monster from Pluto. "And now I'm a girl... who's falling apart." Danny finished. Jazz, who was standing off to one side near the entrance of the basement, cleared her throat nervously, holding her daughter in one arm. 

After a few minutes of staring, Jack narrowed his eyes. "What the Heck did all that mean?" He demanded. Danny sighed and prepared to launch into his story again, but Maddie laid a gentle hand on her husband's arm and turned toward Danny.

"Is this... is this all really true?" She asked, as if in shock.

"Yeah, it is." Danny looked down. "And I'm sorry I never told you before. I just... just wanted to handle it on my own. I didn't want to lean on you guys; I thought I could do it all. And I guess I did okay... but now, I need you guys." Danny slid off of the desk and stood on the floor in front of them. "Please, without you, I'm going to die, and there's nothing I can do about it."

"Well I'm still not entirely sure what the heck you just said." Jack replied. "But if my son, or daughter, is in trouble, then I am going to help him... or... or her."

"That's right." Maddie approached him and placed both of her hands on his shoulders. "Danny, it doesn't matter to us what happens to you or what you become. We'll always be here to help you in any way you could possibly need it." She reached into her blue jumpsuit and pulled out an empty syringe, holding it up in front of him. "Just hold still, and I'll take the sample we need to start fixing this right away."

"Thanks, mom." Danny watched as Maddie jammed the syringe into his arm and withdrew enough blood to get to work. "I knew I could count on you guys." He almost collapsed to the floor when his father slapped him on the back with one broad, powerful hand.

"We'll get this all fixed up in no time. And we'll even work on getting you your manhood back." Jack said confidently. "Just you wait son... er... daughter... person...? Offspring! We'll get you back to normal in no time, offspring!" He slapped Danny in the back again almost hard enough to send him to the floor before turning to join his wife on the other side of the room.

Danny rubbed his arm where Maddie had drawn her blood while Jazz moved to stand beside him. "I knew they'd take this well." Jazz said.

"Yeah, me too. I still didn't want to do it." Danny turned back to the stairs. "Even if they say they accept me, it's like... I dunno. I still feel like I'm disappointing them somehow. Maybe I just need to get over it." She rubbed her head and turned to head upstairs. Wait a second, did Danny just think of himself as a 'she'?

"You'll be fine. Everything will be fine once they find the cures we need. You'll see." Jazz comforted him, but didn't move to follow him upstairs. Danny emerged into the kitchen and looked around, with his hands jammed into his pockets.

So many questions, so many problems. He was almost afraid to wonder what could possibly happen now.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Two weeks later, Danny's parents are still desperately searching for a cure to his degenerative disease while at the same time looking for a way to turn him back into a boy. But without Danny's original body, it doesn't look like there's any way to make him a boy again. All Danny can do is begin adjusting to life as a girl. Jazz takes it upon herself to show him how to do that, but Sam isn't sure she can deal with this new change being permanent.

Episode 06: New Beginnings


	6. New Beginnings

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Dark Danny fought hard against the Guys in White, but was ultimately defeated by science and ingenuity, and also infected with a virus that began breaking down his molecular structure at a rapid pace. Danny Fenton, meanwhile, was somehow thrown out of his real body and into the body of his female clone, Danielle, where he remained trapped by the same DNA breakdown that afflicted Dark Danny, only at a much slower rate of decay. Dark Danny made his way to Amity Park to seek assistance in his weakened state. He coerced Paulina into leaving Amity Park with him, and they both vanish mysteriously into the sky not to be seen again. Danny, meanwhile, told his parents his secrets in the hope that they can find a cure for his affliction. So the hunt for a cure began at the same time as a new stage of Danny's unusual life.

Haunted Legacies Episode 06: New Beginnings

The ball bounced back and forth and back and forth. Rebounding off of the floor and wall before hopping right back into Danny Fenton's outstretched hand. He was sitting on the living room couch, throwing a small bouncing ball against the wall and watching it return with the ease that can only come from two weeks of straight practice. It wasn't smart for him to go outside if he wanted to keep his condition a secret, so he'd been locked away in the house all this time waiting for his parents to find a way to return him to normal.

With a sigh Danny grabbed the remote off of the couch beside him and flipped it on, annoyed to see yet another of the hundred ads asking people if they knew where Paulina was. Nobody knew where she went, and they were still running spots on the TV asking anybody to contact the police if they had information, though from what he'd been hearing hope grew dimmer by the day. Danny knew where she'd gone, Sam had told him right after it happened. But he had no idea why she would go with him, or where they would go. And he wasn't in any condition to go looking for her himself. Not that he could find her if he did. If his dark side wanted to remain hidden, he would be impossible to find. Along with Paulina.

He looked down his legs at Hope, who was lying on a mat on the floor sleeping peacefully. If nothing else, at least being trapped at home made him an ideal babysitter while his sister was at school and his mother was working down in the basement. They were still working on a cure for his degenerative problem... but they'd told him over a week ago that it was impossible to change his sex, though it might be possible to put him back in his old body if they could find it. Spontaneous sex changes just weren't possible with modern medicine. He could do it the slow medical way, but that wouldn't make him a real boy. He'd just look as much like one as possible. He knew he should be honest, but he didn't have the heart to tell Sam any of this. He knew she was having trouble coming to terms with this situation, and he didn't want to make it worse for now.

He turned his head to the side when he heard the door open off to the side. Jazz entered the house with her book bag slung over one shoulder, which she promptly dropped to the floor by the door and kicked out of the way as she turned to look at Hope sleeping peacefully. "Looks like she behaved for you."

Danny pulled out the front of his white and red shirt, which had a pile of goo from various orifices on the front of it. "Yeah, after fighting like a pro wrestler." Danny retorted. Jazz chuckled and walked around the couch to sit beside him, taking the hair band out of her hair to brush her hair back with her fingers and slip it back into place.

"Alright, I've got her if you want to go." Jazz told him. "Thanks for watching her."

"No problem. What else do I have to do anymore?" Danny shrugged and stood up from the couch, turning to head back to his room. Jazz looked back over the back of the couch to watch him. He went in his room and shut his door behind him, wandering over to his bed and plopping down into it with his arms sprawled out to the sides. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to see. He decided to just play his video games and forget the world for a little while.

Two hours passed in peace before he heard a knock on his door. "It's open." He called out.

Jazz opened the door and poked her head in, fixing him with a smile. "Hey Danny. Can we talk?" Danny gestured for her to enter before turning back to his game. Jazz walked in and moved to sit on the bed beside him, watching the TV disinterestedly.

"Where's Hope?" Danny asked.

"Talked mom into watching her for a bit." Jazz replied. "You know Danny, being a girl... it's kind of tough. There are all sorts of societal expectations and biological shifts to get used to."

"Uh..." Danny hesitated, not sure he really wanted to let her finish this train of thought, but too curious to stop her.

"We both know you're not going to be a boy again for the foreseeable future. So unless you want to spend the next months, possibly years of your life cooped up in this house... you need to try to adapt to this new situation. For now at least."

"So become a girl. Forget being Daniel Fenton, and become Danielle Fenton. Is that what you're saying?" Danny asked. Jazz nodded. "Do you really think it's that easy?"

"Nobody said it would be easy. But the longer you wait, the more difficult it would be in the long run. You don't want to spend the rest of your life this way, do you? Feeling out of place. Like you don't even know what you are anymore." Jazz told him earnestly. Danny looked down at the floor. He had been feeling rather confused lately... "It's for your own good, Danny. If you're going to be a girl, you can't cling to this image you have of yourself as a boy in a girl's body. Denial is not healthy. At some point you have to accept the reality of a situation and learn to cope with it." Jazz smiled. "Besides, I've already talked it over with mom, and we've come up with a story to explain Daniel's absence and Danielle's sudden appearance."

"Really?" Danny asked curiously.

"Yes. Daniel ran away from home in a fit of teenage hormones and Danielle is his long-lost cousin whose parents died in a car crash, so she came to stay with us."

"Ran away from home? Couldn't come up with an excuse that didn't make me look like an idiot?"

"Well, knowing you like I do..." Jazz trailed off. Danny glared at her sourly, but she broke into a laugh. "Come on, I'm kidding. We can come up with something else later on. But this would let you get back out into the world, and back into school." She looked at the nightstand beside his bed, where a stack of papers and books had formed. "I notice you haven't been doing the homework I've brought you."

"Yeah, thanks for that by the way. Time off from school just isn't complete without homework." Danny grumped.

"All joking aside, what do you say? Are you ready to accept the hand that life has dealt you?" She asked seriously.

Danny gave her a serious stare, looking into her eyes. Danny had been feeling kind of strange lately... some new things he hadn't ever felt before. He hated to admit it, but he'd spent the first few nights after the Guys in White incident crying his eyes out from fear of dying and confusion over suddenly becoming a girl. Lately though he'd come to grips with it... maybe it was time to try to embrace this new life. He didn't know if it would work, but anything seemed better than this confusion.

"Alright." Danny nodded. "Maybe it is time I just get over it. Make it my own."

Jazz grinned. "Right, and I know just how to do that." She stood up and walked out of the room, returning a few moments later to hold a large makeup case out in front of her. "Let's get feminine."

* * *

Sam marched down the sidewalk, her thick steel-toed boots pounding on the cement in frustration. Her mother had decided it was the perfect day for a picnic in the park right after school. Every single day this week. Sure, Sam liked spending some time with her mom now, but this was really starting to get on her nerves. She might have to put her foot down if this continued much longer.

She approached Danny's house and knocked, waiting for a few moments. She was surprised when Sam's mother, Maddie, opened the door with Hope held in one arm. "Um, hello Mrs. Fenton." Sam said.

"Hey Sam. Come right on in." Maddie stepped aside to let her in, closing the door behind her. "Danny's upstairs with Jazz. I think they're bonding." She grinned.

Sam blinked in surprise. "Um... bonding?"

"Yes." Maddie was grinning broadly. "I do love to see them getting along. Oh, you can head right up if you want to. I've got everything taken care of down here." She looked down and poked Hope in the stomach, who gurgled and kicked her limbs a little bit.

"Um... okay. Thanks. See you." Sam waved and turned to head upstairs, taking a deep breath as she walked to steel herself for what she was about to see.

No matter how many times she saw Danny as a girl, it never failed to get to her. She kept expecting to walk in and find him as a boy again no matter how many days passed without it ever happening. At least his personality hadn't changed a whole lot. He was still the belching, dirty, filthy-minded boy who she'd fallen in love with so long ago. He was still the same boy, just in a new body for now. The same dirty, filthy boy.

She reached Danny's room and pushed the door open, seeing Danny standing in the middle of the room, looking in a mirror wearing a frilly white dress with lace trim that hung so low on her that it touched the floor, but fit snugly across the chest and waist. "I feel pretty!" Danny exclaimed with a broad, rose lipstick covered grin plastered on his face.

"Oh my God!" Sam exclaimed. Danny whirled on the door and shrieked, putting his hands up in front of himself as if to shield his body from her view. Sam marched inside, clenching her fists. "Wh... wha...?" She marched up to Jazz, her fists shaking. "What the Hell did you do to my Danny!?"

"Now Sam, calm down!" Jazz put her hands up in front of her defensively. "It's not healthy for Danny to keep seeing herself as a boy. She could be stuck like this a long time... maybe forever... so I was just helping her get in touch with her feminine side."

"She? Her? HE is a boy!" Sam exclaimed.

"Sam, just listen!" Jazz tried to get a word in, but Sam continued.

"Besides, this is just degrading! Girls don't have to wear frilly dresses and red lipstick anymore! Were you raised in the fifties or something? This is the new millennium! Girls aren't like that!"

Jazz finally shouted to be heard over Sam's ranting. "I know what affirmative action has taught us over the years! But I also know the psychological and sociological ramifications of what could be some very dramatic shocks if he doesn't at least get used to the idea of fitting into societal norms that have been set for women in this culture! Societal norms and expectations that don't just go away because you want them to!" Sam blinked and stepped back, stunned by her loud voice and harsh tone. "There is nothing wrong with at least knowing HOW to be ladylike!"

Sam narrowed her eyes instantly. "And what the Hell is THAT supposed to mean!?"

"Hey! HEY!" Danny screamed at the top of his lungs, silencing them both as they turned to look at him. "Sam, can I talk to you in private?" He glared up at her sharply. She'd never seen him looking so upset, so she glanced at Jazz one last time, then nodded and turned to let Danny lead her out of the room. They made their way down the hall to the bathroom, where Danny closed and locked the door behind them.

"Danny, I don't know what she told you, but you don't have to do this. Be who you are, you don't have to conform to-"

"I'm trying to FIND OUT who I am!" Danny whirled on her suddenly. Sam stepped back in surprise. He almost never used that kind of tone with her. Right away Danny took a deep breath and when he spoke, it was more calmly. "Sam, you have no idea what this is like. There's all these weird feelings. I don't know how to deal with them. And honestly, Jazz has been helping, even if it seems stupid." Danny turned to look into the mirror over the sink, looking down at the dress draped over his distinctly feminine body.

"But you're not a girl, Danny. You can't be a girl." Sam told him quickly.

"You're the one who just said to be myself! Well maybe this is who I am now! Why can't you deal with that!?" Danny demanded.

"I just... just can't!" Sam replied furiously. Danny suddenly blinked, looking a bit surprise. It was then that Sam realized her bottom lip had begun to tremble. She stood up straight and took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked with a gentle, worried expression on his face. The fact that this look only made him so much more beautiful than he already was only made Sam even more upset.

"I'm not... not Gay, Danny!" Sam replied. "I'm not Gay! I don't think I can... can be with a girl." She looked away from him, hugging her arms around herself nervously.

"Sam... what are you saying?" Danny's voice shook and he approached her. He tried to put his arms around her, but Sam just looked away, keeping her arms around herself. "What are you saying?" He asked again.

"I don't know." Sam suddenly pushed him away and brushed past him, opening the door and rushing down the hallway toward the front of the house. She ignored Maddie as she tried to greet her again, rushing out front and heading down the sidewalk toward her house. What a great way to handle the situation, Sam told herself. But then, she didn't know what else to do.

* * *

Danielle Fenton, once known as Danny Fenton, stood in the middle of the bathroom, staring after Sam as she vanished down the stairs. She could hear her heavy footsteps stomp through the house until they vanished through the front door. She didn't move, she could barely think. She just stood there in the middle of the bathroom, her mind desperately trying to figure out what had just happened. Did Sam just break up with her?

The door to Dani's room opened and Jazz poked her head out, looking down the hall toward the stairs, then turning to look back at Dani. Without a word she emerged from the bedroom and approached Dani, wrapping her arms around her to pull her into a gentle hug.

"What just happened...?" Dani asked in a soft, quivering voice.

"Nothing, Dani." Jazz told her. "Sam just needs a little time. You know this has been hard for her too." Dani closed her eyes, trying to fight back those tears that had begun to show themselves more and more often over the last few weeks. Jazz's arms around her helped her to slowly fight the tears back, until she was able to pull back and dry her eyes with the rim of her dress.

"I need to go." Dani stepped back as the light flashed around her body, sweeping over her as she transformed into her Ghost Mode. "I'll come back soon." Before Jazz could protest, Dani whirled and vanished through the wall, flying straight through the building until she emerged into the golden light of the evening sun. She flew out over the town of Amity Park while the strong high-altitude winds whipped across her bare skin, looking down at it for the first time in ten months.

She remembered loving this view back before the Reaper incident. Often times she would fly high up above the city and just float around on the stray winds, letting it carry her this way and that way. She didn't dare do it recently thanks to her dark side's presence, and then she'd wanted to remain hidden after this transformation. But like Jazz had said, she couldn't possibly hide from the world forever.

She turned to face forward, looking down to spot her objective nestled between the buildings and the city streets. She arched downward, heading through the air toward the cemetery near the edge of down. She remained focused on a specific headstone near the front of the cemetery, and was surprised to see another person already there. It was a familiar figure, who wore loose white robes while a tuft of blonde hair emerged from a hood pulled up to conceal her face.

Dani floated down more slowly, watching the figure for a few minutes. She didn't move or do anything alarming. She just knelt in front of Tucker's headstone, her head bowed down to her chest in a gesture of respect. When she was satisfied there was no danger, Dani floated down slowly and landed on the grass behind the figure. At the sound of the crunching leaves, the figure raised her head.

"You've changed much in a short time." The figure said without looking back.

"Thought I'd try something new. Maybe a new outfit, a ponytail, some breasts." Dani replied. The figure laughed merrily, not at all a threatening laugh but rather a lighthearted laughter shared by friends. "What are you doing here?"

"You've had a month to consider your answer, Danny... or is it Danielle now?" The figure turned to look back, her face still obscured by the hood. "Whatever your name or your problems, what we offer can fix them all." Dani blinked, then suddenly remembered. The Reality Gems! Of course, they had the power to fix everything. They could do anything. They could make her a boy again. They could fix things with Sam...

"What would I have to do?" Dani asked guardedly.

"You have changed, but your experiences have not. You are still in tune with the Reality Gems. We need only look through your mind's eye to see exactly where they are." The figure told her.

Dani closed her eyes, lost in deep thought for a few moments. They were the most powerful, dangerous force on the planet. They could destroy the world as he knew it, if they fell into the wrong hands. And yet... "If it was just for me, I probably wouldn't do it." Dani opened her eyes, looking up slightly at the tall, graceful robed figure. "But I'd do anything for Sam."

"You will help us then?" The woman asked again.

"Yeah, I'll help you." Dani nodded. "I'll do anything I can." The woman smiled and approached her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you, child. You have made the right decision." The woman reached up with both hands to draw the hood of her robe back, revealing her face. She was a rather wizened woman at least 50 years old with streaks of gray dotting an otherwise blonde mane of hair. Even after so long, her baby blue eyes continued to shine with more radiance than Dani had ever seen before. "My name is Athena." She held out her hand. "Come with me, and I will take you to where you need to be."

Dani looked uncertainly up at her, but reached out and took her hand to let the much older woman guide her down the sidewalk away from the cemetery. She was getting a bad feeling out of all of this, but she didn't want to lose Sam. Not now, not ever.

* * *

Jazz made her way down the staircase toward the living room a while after Danny had left. It hurt to see Danny... no, not Danny anymore. It was Dani. She had to get used to that if she wanted to make Dani comfortable with it. It hurt her to see Dani looking so heartbroken, but she could definitely see where Sam was coming from. If her significant other suddenly changed sex, she would probably freak out too. She was normally good at reading people, but even she couldn't figure out what was going to happen between them.

Just as she reached the bottom of the stairs she heard a knock on the door, so she moved to get it before retrieving her daughter from Maddie. She saw Star standing on the other side with a somewhat nervous smile on her face, waiting patiently with her hands behind her back. Jazz blinked and looked down at her watch.

"Oh geeze I completely forgot." Jazz said.

"If you're busy, I can come back tomorrow..." Star trailed off.

"No no, come in. I just need to let my mom know she needs to watch Hope a little while longer." Jazz stepped aside to let Star in, then closed the door behind her. The last two weeks since Paulina's sudden disappearance had been hard on Star. The girl was used to waiting on Paulina hand and foot, and being the center of attention in school. Without Paulina, she had neither of those things, reducing her to something resembling a lost frightened puppy looking for acceptance, especially since her eyes were surrounded by increasingly dark bags that betrayed her lack of sleep. Jazz suspected it was only her growing friendship with Sam and her therapy sessions that made her leave the house at all.

"Go on into the den, I'll be right there in three seconds." Jazz told her. Star nodded and went into the den to lie down on a sofa while Jazz went into the kitchen, where her mother was feeding Hope from a bottle. "Sorry mom, Star's here, you're going to have to watch her a little while longer."

"Jazz, you know I have important work to do." Maddie said with a meaningful look in her eye. She had been working on a cure to Dani's degenerative DNA before being interrupted. Neither she nor Jack had stopped working except to sleep and eat for the last two weeks. Except for Maddie, who babysat Hope while Jazz was at school.

"I know, but Star really needs this, and..." Jazz began.

"Jasmine, you can talk to your friend while you watch your daughter." Maddie stood up and held out the baby, who Jazz dutifully took from her grasp. "Now here's the money for pizza tonight. We're already so dreadfully behind schedule, we may have to work through the night to make up the hours." Maddie reached into her purse, then pulled out a twenty and handed it to Jazz.

"Sorry, mom..." Jazz said softly. Maddie turned away from her without another word and rushed down into the basement, leaving Jazz standing alone in the kitchen with her daughter and the bill held in her arms. Jazz stared after her, but refused to let herself feel anything other than happiness that they were working on a cure for Dani's condition. It was a life-or-death situation; it was stupid to feel jealous of their attention to it.

It didn't stop a soft sigh from escaping her lips as she turned to head into the den. She found Star lying back on the sofa with her hands behind her bed, waiting patiently. She looked over when Jazz walked into the room, and raised one eyebrow questioningly.

"I thought..." Jazz hesitated a moment. "I thought maybe instead of talking tonight, we could have some pizza and watch a movie. I'm buying." Jazz raised the twenty-dollar bill in her free hand.

Star's face lit up and she sat up on the sofa. "Sure. That sounds great!" So in no time they were sitting in the dark living room on the sofa and watching a movie with a large pepperoni pizza sitting on the coffee table in front of them. Jazz had Hope resting against one of her shoulders while she ran a hand over her tiny back, trying to push an air bubble up her windpipe while Keanu Reeves tried to pick between the red and the blue pill.

Jazz's eyes darted toward the front door when she heard it creak open, but it was too dark to see who it was. Whoever it was turned to creep up the stairs without moving into the light from the TV. Jazz glanced to the other side at Star, who had passed out more than ten minutes ago and was now sleeping peacefully with her cheek resting on the arm of the couch.

Jazz smiled slightly before she stood from the couch, lifting her sleeping daughter into a more comfortable position before turning to follow the figure upstairs. When she reached the top of the stairs she immediately noticed that Dani's door was cracked open and the light was on, so she made her way over to it and pushed it the rest of the way open. Sam was sitting on the bed beside the nightstand, holding the copy of the Necronomicon she'd given to Dani in her lap.

"She's not here, if you're looking for her." Jazz said. Sam's head snapped up in surprise, then she relaxed again when she saw it was just Jazz. "She left right after you did. Hasn't come back yet."

"I guess I'm not looking for HER. I'm looking for HIM." Sam replied wryly.

"Mmm." Jazz hummed and walked into the room, moving to sit down on the bed beside Sam, looking down at the book in her lap. "Still disgusting."

"I forgot about it with everything that's been happening lately." Sam ran her fingers over the cover. "I would've come back for it sooner if-"

"What are you going to do, Sam?" Jazz asked suddenly. Sam looked up at her, but didn't ask what she meant. It was pretty clear to both of them what the main concern was right now. "What do you want to do?"

"What do I want to do? Not care." Sam replied simply. "I want to be able to say that it doesn't bother me. That I love Danny for who he is, and that I don't care at all what body he's in or what he looks like."

"But that's not true." Jazz said.

"I... I don't know." Sam shook her head. "I know I'm being stupid and shallow. He's still the same person he always was and-"

"She." Jazz interrupted her. "She is who she always was." Sam winced and looked away from her. "Look Sam, I know what society would tell you to do. 'Stand by your man no matter what'. But the truth is that's not always the best way to go." Sam looked over at her in surprise. "Relationships are all about give and take. You give happiness, and in turn you take happiness from your partner. If you're unable to take happiness from your partner, then you'll have none to give. If you're not happy and comfortable and fulfilled with the relationship, it just can't work."

"It's still shallow." Sam replied grumpily.

"That's not the issue. Your happiness is the issue." Jazz told her firmly. "What you need to do is ask yourself one important question. Can you love Danielle Fenton the same way you loved Daniel Fenton? Can you see yourself spending any time with her at all? Let alone the rest of your life." When Sam went a few minutes without answering Jazz continued. "Whatever you do, don't pretend. Take some time away if you have to. Clear your head and do some soul-searching. And when you come back, don't THINK you have an answer. KNOW you have one. No matter what it is."

"Okay..." Sam nodded and stood up, clutching the disgusting book tightly to her chest like a life preserver. "Tell Dani I'm sorry for running out like I did. I didn't mean to hurt him... or... her."

"I know. And I'm sure she does too." Jazz stood up with her. Sam nodded and turned to leave, so Jazz followed, closing Dani's door behind him before they headed downstairs. Jazz walked Sam to the door and opened it for her. The sun had fallen beyond the horizon by now, and the stars were out in full force, with the full moon shining as the centerpiece of the beautiful night sky overhead.

"I'll see you around, Jazz. And thanks." Sam smiled sadly and waved before turning to jog through the night, heading in the direction of her mansion.

Jazz closed the door and looked back at Star, sleeping peacefully on the couch under the gentle glow of the television. Jazz smiled and walked over to her, grabbing the blanket draped over the back of the couch to tuck it around Star's limp form with one hand. She patted the blanket down, watching her peaceful face for a few extra moments. She was a good girl... she was just mentally battered and wounded. Jazz hoped eventually they would get to the root of those wounds.

After another few moments, she grabbed the remote, turned off the TV, and turned to head upstairs. She would let Star sleep and explain it to her parents in the morning. She seemed like she needed the rest.

* * *

Dani Phantom looked around at the dark night sky, now wearing an elegant white robe similar to the one Athena had been wearing before. Now, as they approached the top of a hill outside of the boundaries of Amity Park, she saw even more white-robed figures gathering under the bright light of the pale moon. This was getting even more suspicious. Dani was starting to think she'd gotten herself mixed up in some kind of psychotic cult. But some random cult could never have known her true identity. There was something more behind these guys.

"Please, approach the center of the circle." Athena released her hand and gave her a gentle nudge into the middle of the circle of robed figures. Dani moved forward across the grass, stopping in the middle of the figures and looking up. The moon was sitting directly overhead, almost as if it was shining specifically on her. She lowered her gaze again when the figures around her moved.

They raised their hands out to the sides, up into the air until they were slanted upwards, the tips of their fingers touching those of their neighbors in an unbroken circle. Athena was the only one whose hood was drawn back, standing in front of Dani with her eyes turned up toward the moon overhead. It was a few moments before Dani realized something strange was happening. Her eyes were beginning to glow white.

"The inner mind can see beyond, to knowledge that the surface simply cannot comprehend." Athena spoke in a strong, loud voice, as if speaking to the universe as a whole rather than to anyone in particular. "This child has touched the gems of all creation. Make them reveal themselves through her mind's eye. Show her their secrets, and show her the way."

Dani blinked in surprise when the air around her began to shift and swirl like a mirage on the distant horizon. She gasped when the shifting air suddenly began to show color, a million different colors and shades flowing around each other in a ceaseless pattern. It was familiar. She was sure she'd seen it before, two weeks ago. In the eyes of the body she currently owned.

The colors shifted and weaved through the each other, moving around Dani without ever coming close enough to touch her like a great multi-colored tornado. Before Dani could move or even speak, the colors surged forth, plunging straight into her forehead like a tidal wave. Dani stumbled back, her body stiffening as her mind's eyes was ripped away from the present moment.

She could see everything she'd ever seen in her life with crystal clarity surpassing any memory or even any present moment. She remembered her mother holding her from the very first minute she was born. She remembered meeting Tucker in kindergarten, and meeting Sam in seventh grade. She remembered every single ghost she'd ever encountered, seeing clearly for the first timer straight through the façade of who they were trying to be and the people who they'd been in real life. Dozens of spirits, all suddenly given lives and histories in her mind.

And then she saw it. The Reality Gauntlet perched on the end of her fist. Embedded into the gold gauntlet were four gems, each glittering with unspeakable, but dangerous power. She lowered the gauntlet to her side and hurled it up into the air, sending the gauntlet flying overhead into the rays of the sun to shine brilliantly just before a powerful ecto-blast ripped into the gauntlet, shattering it on impact.

It was as if her vision split into four and followed the gems on their flight path, propelled through the sky far higher and farther than should have been possible. It was as if some force repelled them from one another, because they soared straight to opposite ends of the country, one flying into every corner. She could see them fall to the ground as if she was standing right beside them, the location of their impact burning itself into her mind.

As quickly as it had engulfed her senses, the powerful flashes of light faded from her mind, fading into the dark night to reveal the robed figures standing around her, watching her with stunned expressions on their faces. Dani stumbled a bit from the suddenness of it all, raising a hand to her head while she weaved woozily on the grass. She looked up at Athena as she approached with her eyes wide.

"Why does everyone look so spooked?" Dani asked woozily.

"That light..." Athena said softly, gazing at her in awe. "That was the light of beyond."

"Beyond?" Dani raised one eyebrow in confusion.

"You have become far more than we ever realized." Athena continued, ignoring the spoken question. "Where have you been? What have you seen?" She asked, stepping toward eagerly, as if just being near her was enough to bring her to the height of ecstasy.

"Um... I've been to the mall a few times..." Dani backed away from the woman slowly, raising her hands in front of her. This was officially getting too creepy for her tastes, and as much as she hated not upholding her end of any bargain she might have made, there was no way she was hanging around these lunatics any longer. "Look, this has been fun, really." She reached up to remove the white robe, dropping it to the grass. "But I need to get home."

"Wait. You haven't told us what we came here to learn." Athena told him. After seeing her like this, Dani was surer than ever that she didn't want the Reality Gems falling into their hands. "You cannot turn your back on us. Not now."

"Sorry, I'll see you around." Dani turned invisible and floated off the grass. She had to dart into the air to avoid Athena's desperate lunge, floating higher into the sky away from the figures, who were now looking around as if they would see her coming back to suck their blood.

"This isn't over, Phantom!" Athena climbed to her feet, her mask of kindness faded to reveal a seething, vengeful heart hidden beneath. "Those gems are ours by birthright! And we will bring all of our great power to bear to see them in our hands once again!"

"Over my dead body." Dani muttered to herself before turning to fly away.

She flew across the moonlit sky, heading toward her house, but suddenly she doubled over in mid-air and began to plummet toward the ground, her hands clutching desperately at her chest. It felt like she was burning from the inside out. She slammed into the middle of the dark street, illuminated only by the light of the stars and sparsely placed streetlights. She lay on her back for a couple of minutes, panting now that the pain had turned into a dull, constant throb. Turning her head to look down at herself, she saw a puddle of ectoplasm leaking from her back onto the ground around her. Geeze, she didn't remember flight doing much damage to his clone back when they first met. The degeneration must have progressed more than she thought.

She allowed the ghostly essence to sink back into her body, causing her to transform back into her normal human body, and the pain subsided completely. Though the leaked ectoplasm remained on the ground beneath her. Slowly she climbed to her feet, her legs shaking with muscles that felt far too weak to support her body.

"Note to self. Don't use powers so much." She reminded herself through gritted teeth as she turned to force her legs to carry her home.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

As the first snowfall of Winter blankets Amity Park, the clock is ticking over Maddie and Jack's search for a cure, but the final piece of the puzzle continue to elude them while Dani's condition steadily worsens. Sam, in the meantime, has been looking deep inside of herself for clues about how she really feels about Dani, but to distract herself she turns to her copy of the Necronomicon, which may not be a copy at all...

Episode 07: Growing Shadows


	7. Growing Shadows

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Sam, unsure about how much she can love Danielle Fenton the girl, leaves Dani's life to do some serious personal reflection and soul-searching. Dani, meanwhile, runs once again into the mysterious woman from the cemetery who turns out to be Athena, the head of a cult-like group who seems to able to tap into real magical powers, which allow Dani to learn the locations of the four lost Reality Gems and flee the crazed group. Jazz and Star share a quiet night alone with a baby, a movie, and a box of pizza, while the hunt for the life-saving cure to Dani's molecular degeneration continues down in the Fenton Works basement.

Haunted Legacies Episode 07: Growing Shadows

It was bitterly cold outside as the snow continued to sprinkle down onto the streets and rooftops. But down in the FentonWorks laboratory, one would never know how cold it was becoming outside. Maddie Fenton was sweating heavily as she stared into a specialized microscope through the lens of her specially crafted goggles. Beneath the powerful microscope she could see the DNA strands that made up everything Dani was. They were weak and brittle, rather like a leaf on a branch that had been nearly gnawed through by insects.

"Amplify the signal through the frequency modifications we made." Maddie said firmly.

"Right." Jack's voice came back from behind her. As she watched the DNA strange began to shiver underneath the microscope.

"We have a confirmed reaction. Increase signal strength by six Megahertz and alter the frequency like we discussed." Maddie said. Her husband confirmed the order and did as he was told. The DNA strands shuddered slightly harder as the frequency shifted. Suddenly, the shuddering eased and the strand lay dormant in the small blood sample, no longer being eaten away before her eyes. "Okay, we've reached the plateau stage. Activate secondary signal."

"Activating secondary signal. Output, 16 Megahertz." Jack replied confidently. This was the strength they'd agreed upon, but there were no reactions from the DNA sample.

"Increase signal strength to 19 Megahertz." Maddie said. She waited while her husband followed her command, watching the DNA float serenely in its sample. "22 Megahertz." Still no reaction. "35 Megahertz." While her husband did as directly, she saw the DNA beginning to shudder. It was coming to life somehow, but it didn't seem to be doing anything. "We have a confirmed, but unstable reaction. Increase signal strength to 40 Megahertz."

"Increasing signal strength." Jack replied as he worked the console. Maddie bit her lip and crossed her fingers, watching the DNA strand under the microscope. It shuddered violently in place, but she could see the rough, worn, and brittle edges slowly beginning to smooth out, becoming fuller and stronger.

"We have a positive reaction. DNA restoration is beginning as we-" She stopped when suddenly the brittle tendrils of the DNA strand snapped like twigs, the molecules floating away from each other through the blood sample. Maddie sighed and hung her head in front of the microscope for a moment, then looked up at her husband behind the console and shook her head.

Jack frowned and reached down to turn off the device while Maddie stood up straight and pulled her mask off of her face, revealing her head of tangled red hair, her sweat-beaded forehead, and her dark, tired eyes.

She raised a small tape recorder up to her lips as she spoke. "Experiment 23, though showing promising results, was nonetheless a failure. The molecular structure is simply too brittle to withstand even the small amount of energy output required to affect the necessary influence on the DNA. If we could only keep it stable long enough for the main portion of the healing to finish." She sighed deeply and closed her eyes. "Will continue on with further research samples." She turned off the recorder and placed it on the table in front of her, lowering her head.

She felt a pair of large, powerful hands grip her shoulders from behind. "Come on now sweetie, we'll find a way around this. Or my name isn't Jack Fenton. Which my underwear says it is." Jack told her proudly.

"I'm not sure what else there is to try. We've tried medicines, sound waves, and electrical pulses, and all of it resulted in the same thing. The destruction of the DNA sample." Maddie shook her head hopelessly. "I'm beginning to think the deterioration is just too far along to be reversible."

"We'll find a way to fix this, Maddie. We can do anything, you and I" Jack told her with a comforting smile.

"I hope so... but whatever we do, we'd better do it fast." Maddie looked beside them toward the wall, where they'd put a clock that was counting backwards. Seven days, six hours, and nine minutes remaining until the DNA became so brittle that it would collapse in on itself...

"M... mom?" Maddie whirled around when she heard her name spoken from near the entrance. She saw her son-turned-daughter Dani watching them from near the entrance, with one of her hands resting on the wall and her face red and worried. Oh dear, she hadn't heard Maddie talking, had she? "Mom, can I talk to you for a moment? Please?" She asked worriedly.

"Of course, sweetie. What's the matter?" Maddie approached her with a smile on her face. Dani hadn't worn any dresses after the first day, but nor was she wearing what she did before the transformation. She wasn't comfortable in anything too overly 'girly' or different quite yet, so she'd taken to wearing a white tank top that looked remarkably like her old tee shirts with the red dot in the dead center, and her loose blue jeans that cascaded down her thin legs, barely touching them before touching down on top of her white tennis shoes.

Dani gestured for her to come even close, so she bent over slightly to put her ear closer to her lips. "I'm... I'm bleeding." Dani whispered softly.

"You cut yourself?" Maddie asked. Dani shook her head, her face bright red. It took Maddie a few moments to catch on to what she was saying. "Oh... oohhhhh!" She stood up straight. "It's okay, that's a perfectly normal thing. Uh... Jack, me and Dani need to go out and get a few things."

"No problem, I'll come with you." Jack moved to join them.

"NO!" Maddie and Dani both shrieked in unison, halting the big man in his tracks.

Maddie chuckled and spoke more calmly. "No, Jack. Maybe you could fix us something to eat for when we get back? I'm sure we could all use a nice, quiet meal tonight. It has been such a long time since we've all had dinner as a family."

"Sure! I'll get right on that!" Jack grinned enthusiastically. "Maybe I'll make my famous Ecto-Surprise!" He turned to head upstairs toward the kitchen without another word, looking like a child released into a candy store.

"He used to love cooking so much." Maddie smiled wistfully. "Well, come on Dani. We need to get you some things at the store." Dani nodded and followed her mother upstairs, where she grabbed her purse off of a nearby end table. "Make sure you grab your jacket. It's getting cold out there." She told Dani as she pulled on her own thick winter coat. They climbed into the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle, which was the only car Jack and Maddie ever drove despite the fact that there were no more ghosts to assault.

"This has been a great month." Dani grumped. "First I get turned into a girl, AND made two years younger so I have two more years of puberty. Then Sam stops talking to me for some reason, and now I just start bleeding for no reason. I think someone up there hates me pretty bad."

"Now Dani, this is perfectly natural. It's something all women have to learn to deal with." Maddie said.

"All women." Dani said acidly. Then she sighed and raised one hand to her head. "I know, I know. Denial about this isn't good. I am a girl, there's nothing to be done about it, and there's wrong with being a girl."

"This has been a rougher transition than you've let on, hasn't it?" Maddie asked sadly. Dani nodded without looking at her. "Well, if you can cope with being half-ghost and go through all that you did, I know you have the strength to cope with this too. I don't think there's anything you can't handle." Maddie looked over at her with a smile. "I'm very proud of everything you've done Dani. I know sometimes I can forget to say it, but I am."

"Wow..." Dani looked over at her and blushed. "Thanks, mom. You have no idea how much that means to me." Maddie smiled over at her, but her smile faded when Dani suddenly gasped in pain and clutched at her chest with one hand, leaning back in the chair with her eyes squeezed shut.

"Dani!? Are you okay!?" Maddie exclaimed.

"I'll be... fine." Dani panted through gritted teeth, her fingers gripping her shirt tightly until she began to relax at last. "It's been... happening more often... last couple of days." She panted, suddenly looking weak and frail in the passenger's side seat. "It passes." She gulped and closed her eyes, forcing her breathing pattern to slowly return to normal. "It just hurts."

Maddie turned back to the road silently.

* * *

Sam lay on her back on her massive queen size bed, staring at the ceiling like a corpse waiting to be buried. After a little while, she rolled onto her side and pulled her body into a fetal position, staring now at the clock that stood on the nightstand beside her bed. The lights were off, coating the room in an oppressive darkness that seemed somehow comforting at the moment. 

She didn't react when she heard the door creak open behind her as a beam of light cut through her dark room, shining on the wall in front of her with the silhouette of a woman in a dress standing in the doorway. "Sam? Are you okay?" Her mother asked in a soft, concerned tone of voice. "You've been spending a lot of time in here lately. Well, more than usual."

"I've been soul-searching. It's harder than it looks in movies." Sam replied in an uncharacteristically mellow tone of voice.

"Soul-searching?" She heard her mother's high-heels click across the floor as she approached the bed to sit behind Sam. "Why would you need to do that?"

"It's complicated." Sam looked down, then sat up and turned to look into her mother's concerned face. "Do you think that love is really blind? Or can it be brought to a screeching halt by a change in someone's physical appearance? And... and hormonal balance."

"Sam, what on Earth are you talking about?"

Sam sighed. "I don't know if..." she trailed off. The fact that Danielle Fenton was really Daniel Fenton was a carefully guarded secret known only by the Fentons and herself. She couldn't betray that trust by telling her mother all about it. "Let's just say, hypothetically, you loved someone very much. You think that it's true love, that it could last the rest of your life. But something happened to change the other person."

"Theoretically, what sort of change are we talking about?" Her mother asked.

"Like, say, a sex change." Sam said carefully. Her mother's face contorted in surprise and disgust. "Not the surgical kind. But like... a freak accident or something."

"That makes no sense. People can't just spontaneously change sex."

"Well, some frogs can..." Sam cleared her throat. "But really, it's for... it's for a story I'm writing for English class. I really want it to feel organic. How would you feel if it happened to you?"

"Well, I really can't say for sure. I just can't imagine what it would feel like. Are they even the same person anymore?"

"I don't know. I guess he ACTS the same. Has the same opinions, the same thoughts, the same dreams and feelings. It's just something subtly different. He's the same but... being with him doesn't give you the same feeling you had before. What would you do? Would you love him? Or would you let him go?"

"Wow. That's a pretty tough question." Her mother put one hand to her chin, looking lost deep in thought. "I suppose it depends on how much he meant to me. I couldn't imagine life without your father; I would be devastated to lose him. If it happened to him... I probably wouldn't be able to leave him. If you really love someone, to the point where your life feels awkward and incomplete without them, then you can overcome anything."

"I see." Sam looked down at the bed, folding her hands in her lap.

"This sounds like a really interesting story. I'd love to read it when it's finished." Her mother said.

"Yeah, I'll show it to you." Sam looked over at her with a slight smile. Her mother smiled back and stood up from the bed.

"Dinner will be ready in ten minutes, if you want to wash up and come down." Her mother said. Sam nodded, and the older woman turned to leave. She stopped suddenly and reached over to flick on the overhead light. Sam winced and closed her eyes against the sudden glare. "And try not to stay in the dark too much. It's not good for you."

Sam just glared, so her mother waved and left the room, closing the door behind her. With a sigh Sam sat up and pulled herself closer to the wall so she could lean against it, looking around at her darkly painted but luxuriously decorated room. All of her ugly electronic equipment was hidden in the walls of her room except for the black laptop that sat almost invisibly atop the ornate black nightstand beside her bed. On top of the laptop sat the Necronomicon, its bindings almost seeming to come alive in the dim lights she allowed her parents to put in her room.

Sam reached out and gripped the thick tome in both of her hands, pulling it off of the nightstand and onto her lap. She hadn't really touched it since bringing it home, but now she desperately wanted something to take her mind off of her troubles. So with a steady hand, she grabbed the cover of the book and pulled it open across her lap.

* * *

Wal-Mart was sparsely populated this late in the evening when Maddie and Dani walked in through the automatic front doors. The door greeter had fallen asleep near the exit and lay propped up against a plastic chair set against the wall. Inside the store only a few lanes were open to take care of those few people who bothered to come to a place like this so late at night. 

Maddie and Dani wiped the snow off of their shoulders and walked into the main part of the store, making their way quickly toward the feminine hygiene section of the store. Dani stopped right outside the isle, her face bright red, but Maddie just placed a hand on her shoulder and dragged her into it.

"I think these would work just fine." Maddie put a hand on her shoulder and turned to guide her toward the women's bathrooms. Once again, Dani stopped right outside them. Maddie knew Dani had avoided going out much despite that they'd made up a story about Danny being sent to his Aunt's while Dani stayed with them. Even at school, Jazz said Dani avoided places like bathrooms and locker rooms like the plague, instead changing clothes in the janitor's closet. "Dani, come on now. It's nothing to be worried or embarrassed about."

"I just don't know if I'm ready." Dani said.

"It's just a bathroom. It'll be fine." Maddie took her hand and led her into the vacant bathroom. "See? It's even empty for you. Now go on into a stall and put one of these on." Maddie opened the box of pads and handed one to Dani. "I'll go pay for them and come back to make sure you're okay. I'll be right back, I promise." Dani, still looking nervous, nodded and turned to head into one of the stalls.

Maddie closed up the box and walked out of the bathroom, heading toward the check lanes where she approached the clerk immediately, since there was no line.

As the clerk behind the register took the box his face stayed on hers for a moment before his eyes lit up in recognition. "Hey, you're that Fenton chick, right? Madeline?"

"Maddie." Maddie corrected him. "I haven't gone by Madeline in years."

"Yeah, yeah, that." The clerk nodded as a broad grin lit up his face. "Saw some of those reports about you and your husband in the newspaper." He cackled and shook his head. "How is the spook hunt going? Hear the field's dried up."

"We've been keeping busy." Maddie replied, just waiting for him to finish running the box through and telling her how much is cost.

"About as busy as ever, I guess." The clerk cackled again. "Hey, did you guys ever catch that half-spook you were hunting for over a year? Or did it just get bored and go away on its own?"

"We caught it alright." Maddie said under her breath.

"Well, I'm sure YOU caught it. Whatever it really was. Probably some psycho, you can't be like that without going a little crazy if you ask me." The clerk said.

"Well I didn't ask you." Maddie snatched the box from his hands, rang it up herself and placed a ten-dollar bill on the counter between them. "Just keep the change." She waved him off haughtily and turned to head back to the bathroom. She really didn't want to hear any more gossip about the ghost-boy or her husband. Why people always felt the need to badmouth Jack in front of her she never understood. And as far as she was concerned, there was no more ghost-boy. There was only her son. Or... daughter.

She walked into the bathroom, seeing one of the stalls still locked. She approached it and knocked lightly. "Dani? Are you finished?" She asked. When she didn't get an answer she smiled slightly. "Would you like some help?"

"Uh-huh." Dani squeaked embarrassedly.

After they were finished they emerged from Wal-Mart into the parking lot. The snow was falling all around them, blanketing the parking lot in a soft white glow from the moon that shone through the cracks in the clouds overhead. Dani's face was bright red, but Maddie just held her hand in a comforting grip and guided her across the parking lot toward the RV.

Maddie's head jerked back when she heard Dani gasp and fall to the ground, where her knees crunched into the thick coat of snow underfoot. "Dani!?" Maddie knelt down beside her instantly, putting her arms around her shoulders. "Dani, hold on. You'll be okay."

Dani grunted in pain, wrapping her arms around her chest as if trying to keep something from bursting out of her. Maddie pulled her close, pulling her head up against her chest while she panted in pain. It seemed like forever had passed before at last she felt Dani's body loosen and her breath began to return to normal. She was surprised when she felt Dani's arms wrap around her waist.

"You'll fix this... right?" Dani's voice shook as she spoke. Maddie realized that her entire body was trembling. "You won't let me fall apart..." Her voice faded into a broken sob, and her next sentence was barely audible, muffled as it was by her mother's chest. "I'm scared..."

"I won't let you die, Dani. I won't." Maddie squeezed her daughter tighter in her arms. "I'll find a cure. I'll help you get better, and you will live a long and healthy life. I promise." She held her daughter in her arms, feeling her tremble against her and unable to do anything about it. She closed her eyes, trying not to let her own tears emerge. It wasn't over yet. It wasn't over until a cure was found.

The silence of the night around them was broken only by the gentle wind that cast the pure snow across the ground.

* * *

Sam read through several chapters of the Necronomicon, entranced by some of the passages. Some were stories of blood and betrayal that stirred something deep in her soul. Others looked like spells and enchantments of various kinds. Curses mostly, that could do anything from give a person bad luck to simply make their heart stop beating. It was somewhat spooky how detailed it became, but she reminded herself it couldn't be real. It was written in plain English, after all. 

She flipped the page to the next one, titled 'The Shadow With No Master'. The story it told was that of a shadow who had come to life at the bidding of its master, only to one day be ripped away from her into the world outside where its young life turned to nothing but a desire for vengeance and blood. It reminded Sam vaguely of Johnny 13's Shadow, though she doubted they were really related. Oddly enough, the pages containing these passages didn't have the same texture as the rest. As if it was added recently.

"Weird." Sam said softly to herself. After the story ended there was a passage that seemed to be some kind of chant along with a list of instructions. Above it was simply written 'Release the Shadow'. She placed her fingers on the text lightly, feeling a strange tingle running up her hand, though it wasn't altogether unpleasant.

A shadow seemed to leap from the blood red text onto her finger, but she jerked her hand back and gasped in surprise. She grabbed the book and tossed it toward the foot of the bed, where it landed with those same pages still facing upward. She rubbed her hand for several minutes, staring at the pages of the book without blinking, but she didn't see the shadow again. Her heartbeat slowed and her breath calmed down when she closed her eyes. She really must have been spending too much time in the dark.

Taking deep breaths to calm herself down, Sam closed the book and slipped it back inside the nightstand beside her bed. When her heart stopped racing she decided she didn't want to be alone anymore, so she slipped off of her bed and turned to head out of the room, walking down the lushly carpeted hallways through the miniature castle she was forced to live in.

On the bottom floor she entered the long dining room, where her parents were already seated at each end with Sam's grandmother in her wheelchair on the opposite side from the door.

Her mother looked at her with a surprised expression, then smiled broadly. "Please, join us, Sam." She gestured to the plate set at the near side of the table in front of a chair that remained empty far too often. Sam nodded and smiled as she sat down in the chair and grabbed her silverware.

* * *

The Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle pulled up in front of the Fenton's home and ground to a stop in the driveway, where Dani and Maddie both climbed out and fell into the thickly piled snow with audible crunches. Maddie walked around the RV to her daughter, who was still holding her chest. Normally the pain passed in a matter of minutes, but this one had been lingering for the last thirty minutes. 

"Are you sure you're okay, Dani?" Maddie asked.

"Is there anything we can do if I'm not?" Dani replied with uncharacteristic bitterness. Maddie said nothing, but just reached out and took her hand to squeeze it tightly. Dani closed her eyes and squeezed her hand back, muttering a word under her breath. "Sorry."

"It's okay. Come on, your father should have dinner ready by now." Maddie smiled and turned to lead Dani inside the house. They walked inside to find Jazz sitting on the couch with a baby carrier lying on the couch beside her, inside of which Hope was sleeping soundly with her arms folded across her tiny stomach. She looked up from her book when they entered.

"Dad said dinner should be ready in five minutes." Jazz told them. "What happened? You left in kind of a hurry."

"Just a bit more adjusting to do." Dani flushed bright red. Jazz blinked in confusion, but Maddie stepped forward.

"It's no big deal, now I say we all go help set the table for dinner and have a nice night for the family." She smiled. Jazz looked at her strangely, but didn't argue as Maddie walked past her two children into the kitchen, where Jack was just finishing up their meal.

The family sat down together for dinner, for perhaps the first time since Maddie could remember. It seemed like everyone was so busy with their own lives these days, they never stopped to spend time together. She wasn't sure when it started. Sure, these last few weeks her and Jack had been busy down in the laboratory, but why didn't they spend time together before that?

Time passed, and though she didn't say anything, Maddie and Jazz could both tell that Dani was wound up like a spring ready to snap. The tension in the air seemed thick enough to touch, and every now and again Maddie could see a sharp stab of pain erupt in Dani's eyes. She refused to say anything else about it, but by the time she pushed her plate back into the middle of the table, her entire body had begun to shudder.

"I think I'm getting tired, I'm going to go up to bed." Dani's teeth were clenched in pain as she spoke, and she quickly pushed herself up from the table. She turned to leave the room without a word, while the other three remained dead silent. Maddie and Jazz exchanged a solemn glance, before Maddie pushed herself up from the table, wiping her lips with a napkin by her plate.

She turned silently to head down to the laboratory once again.

* * *

Sam walked back into her room, closing the door behind her and leaning back against it as she stared across her dimly lit room at the window, outside which the serene white blanket of snow continued to blanket Amity Park. A nice, quiet dinner did much to calm nerves frayed by worrying a lot over the last week. But now the silence of her room once again forced her mind to focus on the issue at hand. Dani. 

She moved across the room to the window, leaning her elbows against the windowsill to watch the snow float gently to the ground. It had been way too long to go without any insight as to what she should do or how she should feel. It was like she kept thinking the same thoughts with no end in sight. 'Round and 'round they went, chasing after one another in a vicious bid for supremacy.

A knock on her door drew her attention toward it. "The door's open." Sam stood up from the window. She smiled when the door swung open and her grandmother's motorized wheelchair swept into the room, where the aging woman sat with her usual, energetic smile. "Grandmom."

"Hello sweetie." Her grandmother cackled and rolled over to the window with her. "You looked like you could use some company during dinner."

"Thanks grandmom. I've just been really confused." Sam leaned back against the window. "See, there's this... this boy. And-"

"Oh oh, stop right there." Her grandmother chuckled. "Young love is such a precious thing. Say nothing to destroy it."

Sam chuckled nervously. "Yeah, well, it's not really that simple. It's kind of complicated."

"Complicated, nothing." Her grandmother turned toward her. "I'll tell you about complicated. I dated myself a nice black guy back in high school."

"Um... yeah? So?" Sam asked.

"It may not seem like such a big deal now, but in the fifties, hoo boy, they made a fuuussssss."

"Oh yeah." Sam raised one eyebrow. "I remember hearing about that kind of thing in History class."

"Everyone always made a fuss about how gals like me and guys like him just don't belong together. Just wasn't done back in those days. Oh my things have sure changed." Sam's grandmother turned her chair toward the window, looking out at the falling snow. "Never was sure why I chose him of all guys." She cackled. "My mom always said it was just to be a rebel, but I never bought that hooey."

"So, why did you do it?" Sam asked curiously.

"Well, let me ask you something, dear. Are black guys different from white guys?"

"No way!" Sam shook her head instantly. "People are just people, no matter what color their skin is."

"Exactly!" Grandma smiled. "So when I realized I was falling in love with him, I just realized that, black or white, he was the kind of person I would love to spend the rest of my life with. I'd feel the same if he was white, black, or anything in between."

"That's really something." Sam smiled slightly. "So what happened? Did you get married?"

"We broke up two weeks after we got together." Grandma shrugged. "Oh well, nothing lasts forever. Except me. Bwahahahahaha!"

Sam chuckled and shook her head. "You really are something grandma." She leaned down to give her grandmother a soft kiss on the forehead. "Thanks. I think you've really cleared a few things up for me."

"Any time, sweetie." Grandma smiled and turned her chair back toward Sam's door. "If you need anything else, you know where to find me."

"Baseball pitch on the roof." Sam nodded.

"That's right. I haven't hit a homer in a while now. Got the itch again." Grandma's chair slipped out through the door and into the elevator on the other side of the hallway. Sam closed her door behind her and leaned against it, taking a deep breath.

"Black or white huh...?" Sam looked at the picture that sat on her nightstand of her sitting on a photo booth with Danny draped over her shoulders, giving the camera a wink and a grin. "All the same on the inside..."

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Hours remain before Dani's molecular structure is due to break down completely. Jack and Maddie continue their research through the night while Dani, Jazz, and Sam try to prepare themselves for the end that seems inevitable.

Episode 08: When the Future Becomes the Past


	8. When the Future Becomes the Past

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Dani encounters an inevitable part of being a girl for the first time, and goes to Maddie for help, but everyone can see that her deterioration is getting worse by the minute, and she's in almost constant pain. Maddie redoubles her efforts to find a cure, while Dani retreats into seclusion to deal with the pain. Meanwhile, Sam continues to search inside herself and ask her family members for advice about how she should deal with Dani's current situation.

Haunted Legacies Episode 08: When the Future Becomes the Past

The snow continued to fall around Sam Manson as she walked down the street, hugging the thick, warm trench coat around her thin body to shield it from the bitter cold. The sun rarely appeared in the sky anymore behind the thick veil of clouds that continued to coat the Earth in pure white powder. But her watch told her it was a little past seven in the evening, and the slowly darkening sky confirmed that night was approaching.

She hadn't seen Dani at all in the last week. She assumed it was simply because they didn't share any of the same classes, and a confrontation might be sort of awkward at the moment. She'd made up her mind just that afternoon about what she should do.

And then, barely twenty minutes ago, she'd gotten a call from Jazz.

Sam approached the FentonWorks building and reached up to knock firmly on the door. Once she would have walked right in, but it didn't feel right to do that anymore. So she waited outside in the snow until Jazz finally opened the door. Her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were stained with recently shed tears, but her shoulders were set in a firm, defiant position.

"Where is she?" Sam asked softly.

Jazz turned her eyes toward the living room and stepped back from the door to let Sam step inside. Sam walked into the building and the short distance into the living room. She could see Hope's baby carrier sitting on the floor beside the couch, where the baby girl was gurgling and kicking at the toys that dangled from the arm above her. Lying on the couch beside the baby carrier, however, was Danielle Fenton.

"Oh God..." Sam raised her hands to her mouth in shock. Dani was lying on the sofa limply, her breath coming in deep gasps. She could hear liquid gurgling with each breath, and even as she lay there the sickening green ectoplasm leaked from her body like radioactive sweat, dripping to the couch and leaking down the side of it to the carpet below. At the sound of her boot steps, Dani's eyes opened and they turned toward her.

"Hey..." Dani's lip curled into a slight smile. "I missed you."

"Dani, why didn't anyone tell me it was this far along?" Sam approached the sofa sadly, clasping her hands in front of her as she looked up and down her body. It still looked fairly normal, but as the puddle of ectoplasm beneath her grew, her body continued to shrink just a little bit. "Why would you keep something like this from me? You know I would want to be here with you, no matter what's happened between us."

"Didn't want to worry you." Dani replied. Her voice was soft and weak, and her eyes drooped tiredly. "Didn't want to interrupt your soul-searching."

Sam reached up and took one of Dani's hands between both of hers. "Do you know how long you have?"

"Mom says the breakdown will hit the final stage in a couple of hours." Dani replied softly. "They're still downstairs working, but..." She trailed off. Sam gripped her hand tighter, pressing her lips into a thin line, desperately trying to hold the tears in. Dani needed support, not sadness. And yet, the tears began to flow anyway. "Hey, come on... at least you won't have to choose."

"That's not funny." Sam wiped at her eyes with one hand. "It doesn't matter if we're an item or not, you're still my best friend. You can't die on me. How can you be so damn calm about this?"

"I've known this was coming for the last couple of weeks." Dani replied. "Ever since the pain started happening without me using my powers. It was pretty obvious that it wouldn't be long."

"Geeze, Dani..." Sam closed her eyes and turned away as several drops of ectoplasm fell from Dani's cheek. "I'm so... so sorry."

"Don't be." Dani told her. "I'm just happy to see you again." Sam opened her eyes and looked down at Dani again, looking into her bright blue eyes that still shined with the smile on her face. "After all, even when the future fades into the past... there's one thing that can last forever. Isn't that right?"

Sam smiled sadly, the tears leaking down her cheeks slowly to drip onto the carpet, mingling with the ectoplasm puddle that continued to grow there. "You're right. One thing can last forever... and never, ever be forgotten. No matter what happens. Not even death can stop it..."

* * *

Electrical energy surged around the FentonWorks basement laboratory, sending off stray flashes of light that would have blinded Maddie and Jack had they not been wearing their protective goggles. Maddie was bent over her microscope, watching the blood sample intensely while her husband stood behind the control panel. The electricity was running through the blood stream, coursing over the individual DNA strands in a diluted form.

"Increase power output by 0.6 percent." Maddie said firmly. She watched as the voltage increased ever so slightly, until the DNA strand began to shudder. "Turn the frequency fluxuator to the pattern we agreed on earlier." She watched the DNA strand shudder harder until very shortly is snapped and vanished from the microscope lens. Maddie howled in frustration and knocked the microscope aside, sending it crashing to the floor with a heavy thud.

"We don't have time for this!" Maddie shouted. "Let's move back to the liquid counteragents, this breakdown is molecular so that's the most likely solution we've got."

Jack walked up to her with a concerned look on his face. "Maddie, maybe-"

"I said we're going back to the liquid counteragents. Why haven't you brought in the next sample yet?" Maddie stooped quickly to pick up the fallen microscope, but as she tried to place it on the table it slipped out of her grasp and clattered to the floor again. Maddie clenched her fist and slammed it down on the table in front of her, closing her eyes in frustration.

"Calm down, Maddie." Jack wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, pulling her back against his broad, powerful chest. Maddie closed her eyes and leaned back against him, taking in several deep breaths. "We still have time. We'll find a cure for our offspring, or you're not the smartest woman in the universe."

Maddie opened her eyes slightly and blinked. "Thanks for that, Jack. I really needed the pick me up."

"What can I say? I do what I can." Jack grinned.

Maddie rubbed her forehead and glanced up at the countdown timer set high up on the wall. Four hours remained before Dani's molecular structure would collapse under its own weight. Just four more hours to create some kind of cure completely from scratch because they hadn't been able to make any headway at all in over a month. The degeneration had progressed way too far for the DNA to withstand any sort of shock or manipulation without simply collapsing.

"No, it's not over yet." Maddie pushed herself up from Jack's arms, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "We will find a cure for our son."

"I thought she was our daughter now?" Jack scratched his head.

"Who cares!? Our baby needs us and we are not giving up! Get the next round of DNA samples! We have work to do."

* * *

It was getting hard to see, Dani realized. The world around her seemed to have faded into a giant, indecipherable blur of color and motion. Even Sam looked like a big black and white blur in the middle of her vision, moving slightly. She could feel Sam's hand still holding hers. Sam's hands squeezing hers was almost comforting, in contrast to the soft ticking of an antique clock that sat on a nearby end table, counting down the seconds to the inevitable.

"Dani?" She heard Sam speak, though her voice sounded softer than it usually was. It was hard to know if she was talking softly, or if her hearing was going as well. "Are you still with us?"

"Yeah." Dani turned her head to the side, looking around in the growing blur. She didn't see a trace of red anywhere. "Did Jazz go somewhere?"

"Hope started fussing, so she took her upstairs." Sam replied.

"I didn't hear anything." Dani said.

"You fell asleep." Sam told her gently. "You were out for two hours."

Dani groaned and tried to lift her arm, but it just shifted uselessly against the couch until she finally gave up. "Everything's getting blurry."

"Don't worry about it. I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere." Dani felt Sam's grip tighten on her hand. Dani nodded as best she could, which was really just a slight up and down movement with her head. She could feel that the couch was slick with something wet, and in her mind she knew what it was. The ectoplasm that had already broken down and fallen from her body. She wondered, how much was left? What did she look like now?

"Dani?" Sam said softly again. Dani turned her head toward Sam's voice, though she couldn't see her at all by now. The blur was slowly beginning to fade into darkness. "I've been thinking about what you said... about one thing that can last forever."

"You don't have to say anything, Sam." Dani said softly.

"No, I do. You deserve an answer before..." Sam gulped and her hands squeezed a little tighter around Dani's. "My mom told me that you know it's love when you can't imagine life without someone else. When you think about what life would be like without them and just feel... empty inside. Like a part of you is missing." She lifted Dani's hand off of the sofa, holding it against her shirt. Dani could feel Sam's cheek on her fingers. "I feel like I'm losing a limb here, Dani... like I'm the one dying."

"She said to ask myself if I could imagine life without you. And... I can't." Sam continued. "I just can't do it Danny. The idea that you won't be here tomorrow... I know we've been having trouble these last couple weeks, and I'm so sorry. It was stupid ever to walk away from you. But I don't want the last thing between us to be something uncertain or harsh..."

"I love you, Daniel Fenton. I love you." Sam said with a force and vigor she never had before. Actually, now that Dani thought about it, she didn't remember Sam ever saying it before. "So please, hold on, don't die on me. Don't you dare die on me!"

"It's not like I'm doing it on purpose." Dani chuckled lightly, staring into the darkness. For one last moment, she could see Sam's blurred face in front of her, before the world fell into complete and total darkness. "Oh... everything's all black now."

"It's not worth seeing right now anyway." Dani could hear the shiver in Sam's voice as she spoke. "Just relax... your parents are going to find a cure and we'll get your sight back. You'll live a long, happy life and we can... we can..." She trailed off for just a moment before Dani felt her thin, spindly arms wrap around her torso. "We can do anything we want to. For the rest of our lives."

"Together...?" Dani asked softly.

"Yes." Sam whispered into her ear. "Together. Just... just hold on a little while longer. Okay?" Sam's voice trembled. Dan opened her mouth to respond, but found she could no longer move her tongue. She felt Sam pull back away from her and speak, though with every word her voice grew softer. "Dani? Are you still with me Dani? Please, don't... don't go... Dani..."

* * *

The timer up near the roof the Fenton Works basement ticked away the seconds. It had long become a vicious enemy, as if it was sucking away the life of her child with every tick. Even worse, only 30 minutes remained on the clock. Of course, the timer was just an estimate. There was no way to know the exact minute. For all Jack and Maddie knew, it was already too late. But they still refused to give up.

Maddie leaned down, staring into the microscope in front of her. This was it, the last test they had time for. If this failed, there was no way they could find another potential cure in 30 minutes. She gestured to Jack with one hand, and he moved around the microscope toward the blood sample she was watching with intense interest. The DNA strand was collapsing right before her eyes, the last pieces of it slowly breaking off from the almost skeletal remains.

"Add the solution." Maddie commanded in a firm voice, though her hands were gripping the side of the steel table so tightly her hands were turning white. Her husband took a deep breath and tilted the vial in his hand, letting a few drops of the precious liquid drip into the blood sample. As she watched the organisms inside the liquid began to melt into the blood sample, flooding through it into every corner of its substance.

She watched as it latched onto the DNA strand she was watching, wrapping around it, though Maddie could still see the DNA through its transparent form. The DNA strand began to shudder, but the substance held it together, pinning it in a solid form as slowly, the liquid substance began to remold itself around the DNA. The strand itself straightened and began to slowly regain its mass, drawing substance from the liquid until at last all that remained was a single strong strand of DNA.

"Jack..." Maddie breathed deeply, hardly able to believe her eyes. "Jack, we did it... we did it!" She stood up and screamed in shock and delight, wrapping her arms around her husband's broad neck in glee. "We did it Jack! We've discovered the cure! Your idea to combine the regenerative nerve tissue with adaptive embryonic tissue modified to be absorbed through osmosis was absolute genius!"

"Well, I AM a genius." Jack grinned.

"You gather up enough antidote for Dani, I'll go upstairs and tell the kids the good news." Maddie said.

"I'm on it, baby!" Jack rushed back to the computer where their research was stored.

Maddie whirled around and turned to run upstairs, taking them two at a time. She ripped her goggles and hood off of her face, letting them fall across her back as she emerged from the top of the steps and rushed into the living room.

She stopped in the middle of the living room, where she saw Sam kneeling beside the sofa while Jazz sat on the nearby chair, holding Hope while she drank eagerly from a bottle. "We found the cure!" She exclaimed happily.

"What!? Really!?" Sam looked up hopefully. "Hurry up! I don't know how much longer Dani can last... she stopped responding over an hour ago." She looked down at Dani, who Maddie looked at for the first time. She was lying on the couch, her chest still rising and falling, but if Maddie didn't know better she would never know that was a real person. Her body was thin and frail, and her eyes had deteriorated into green puddles of ectoplasm that leaked out into the living room carpet.

"Jack is on his way up with the anti-" Maddie was cut off suddenly when they heard an explosion from down in the lab, followed by an eerie silence. The three women whirled toward the basement doorway, their eyes going wide with shock. "Jack!?" Maddie was barely halfway across the kitchen when Sam caught up with her. They ran down the steps side-by-side, and came to an abrupt stop at the bottom. "Jack!" Maddie screamed in worry.

Her husband was lying against the wall nearby, his massive body embedded in the steel while the shards of a table that had been there now lay around him like confetti. In the middle of the room they could see a figure facing away from them, one slender, well-manicured hand holding up a vial. A long white cape kept them from immediately identifying the figure, they could only see the arm and the top of a head framed by long, black hair.

"Do you know how long we've been waiting for you to finish this?" A female voice asked with a tinge of irritation. "My beloved needs it."

Sam stepped in front of Maddie, her voice raising in surprise. "No way... Paulina!?"

The girl whirled with a flourish of her white cape, sending it sailing behind her to reveal a tight black blouse with white, spiked shoulders combined with a pair of loose-fitting black pants that hung around her slender legs on top of a pair of snow-white boots. The most shocking thing about her was her blood red eyes. "It's been too long, Goth-girl. I thought maybe you'd forgotten me. But then, it is difficult to forget perfection once you've seen it."

"What do you think you're doing? Dani needs that antidote!" Sam yelled angrily.

"So does my beloved... and he deserves it so much more." Paulina replied smoothly.

"Beloved?" Sam blinked in surprise. "Paulina, I don't know what he's told you but-"

"Danny Phantom came to me, he trusted in me and he needs me. Almost as much as I need him. I waited and waited and finally my patience was rewarded when he came. He said he needed me to shield him from the disease... that my very life force could sustain him until a cure was found. He is wise indeed..." Paulina closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her torso. "And it feels so good having him inside me..."

"He doesn't deserve the antidote. Though I can't say you two don't deserve each other." Sam smirked. "Drop that vial and nobody gets hurt."

Paulina let out a hearty laugh, putting one hand to her chest. "You just don't understand, do you Goth-girl? He has trusted me with everything." The hand on her chest began to glow with powerful green ecto-energy. "Including the power to crush anyone who gets in the way of my beloved's regeneration."

Sam stepped back in surprise, but Maddie just placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back toward the stairs. She stepped forward with her hands tightened into fists and her teeth clenched in a vicious snarl. "You come into my home, hurt my husband, and threaten to take away the one thing that can save my child?" She reached to the side inside of a nearby locker, pulling out a long staff that glowed green at each end and gripping it tightly in both fists. "You are not leaving with that vial."

"Try to stop me, grandma." Paulina leapt toward the ceiling, but Maddie whirled and slammed her fist into a button on the wall near the exit. Sam gasped and stumbled back as a powerful energy field flowed through the walls and covered the door. Paulina shrieked in surprise when she flew into the ceiling and the Ghost Shield's energy ripped into her body, sending her flying back down into the hard steel floor with a thump.

Paulina climbed to her feet slowly, her blood red eyes fixing on Maddie as her lip curled back into a snarl. "You're going to regret that." She gripped the vile and tried to pry the top off, but Maddie grabbed a beaker from the nearby desk and hurled it across the room, hitting the vile and knocking it out of her hands. It slipped free and slid across the floor up to the wall. "Hey!"

"That is for my baby!" Maddie screamed angrily.

Maddie leapt into the air, the ecto-staff whirling through the air in front of her until she came down, swinging with all her strength at the girl's head. Paulina barely ducked in time, but Maddie whirled and brought the other end of the staff around in a broad swing, which Paulina had to throw herself to the floor to avoid. Maddie kept the staff's momentum going and brought it over her head, but Paulina leapt from the ground, giving her a massive uppercut to the jaw.

The staff fell to the floor while Maddie flew back through the air until her back hit the side of a table. She yelped sharply and spread back against it, her head slamming into the steel before she fell forward again, falling to a sitting position on the floor. She reached up and rubbed her head tenderly, blinking away the blur to see the girl walking toward her slowly, her fists shining green.

Maddie flattened herself on the floor and brought her legs up to slam into the underside of the table. With a grunt, she heaved it over her body and kicked it toward Paulina with both legs, catching the ghostly girl off-guard with the sudden attack. It slammed into her and fell on top of her, pinning her to the floor. But the table clanged to the ground as her body faded into intangibility, and she rose to her feet, looking angrier than ever before.

Maddie used her moment of distraction to whip one of the massive ecto-cannons off of one of the other desks, her fist slamming into the safety mechanism to disable it. Without hesitation a shining green ecto-blast erupted from the end, straight toward the girl. But before it could strike home, Paulina raised both palms and a shining green shield blocked the blast.

Paulina's fists closed suddenly, and the shield turned into a powerful blast that ripped through the barrel of the ecto-cannon and slammed into Maddie's chest, knocking her back into the wall. Maddie screamed in pain and collapsed forward to the floor once the blast ended. She could feel the skin of her chest smoldering as she tried to push herself up on shivering limbs.

Maddie raised her gaze from the floor, and widened her eyes slightly when she saw Sam sneaking through the ghost-shield and toward the vial of antidote that still lay against the far wall. She was careful not to watch too long, lest Paulina catch on, so she looked up at the approaching girl again.

"Never underestimate Danny Phantom." She raised her hand toward Maddie, and a ball of ectoplasm formed in her palm. "His power is unstoppable... and so am I."

Just as Paulina let the blast fly toward Maddie's head, she threw her arms up, moving just over the blast to let it plunge through the solid steel floor. Her body rose through the air and she landed on one foot, instantly kicking off again to throw a powerful kick into the ghost-girl's jaw. Paulina whirled back away from her in shock, but Maddie pressed the attack, her fists flying outward in a flurry of strikes to her face and midsection.

Suddenly one of her punches flew straight through Paulina's head without making contact and one glowing hand rose up in front of her face. She barely had time to blink before the ecto-blast engulfed her head. The blast knocked her back into the wall, where she ricocheted off of it and slammed into the floor facedown, her hands desperately clutching her face in pain. It felt like she was on fire.

At last the pain seemed to subside enough for her to raise her head, and she saw Paulina standing directly over her. Her facial expression had changed entirely, from the cocky, but still human girl into an evil, twisted smirk that seemed to be enjoying just the act itself.

When Paulina spoke, it was with a voice far different, far darker than normal. "You never did appreciate the power you could have had, Maddie... mother..." She raised her hand again, the ball of ectoplasm forming inches from her face. "It doesn't matter what you were, really. You are now a figment of the past."

Suddenly another ecto-blast erupted across the room. It slammed into Paulina's shoulder and shoved her up against the wall, but unlike most blasts this one didn't let up. It continued to pour into her while she struggled to move away from the wall.

Maddie looked, and her eyes lit up when she saw Dani Phantom moving across the basement laboratory, the ecto-energy bursting from her palms and her eyes alight with righteous fury. "Leave her alone... leave my mother alone!" Dani howled with a passion that Maddie had never seen from her son before.

"Rrgh..." Paulina grunted in pain, trying to push the ecto-beam back with her hands, but it continued to pour into her relentlessly. "My power... his power... still too weak..."

"You can corrupt me... you can kill me... you can hunt me until the end of existence... but never, ever, touch my FAMILY!" Dani let the ecto-blast die only to thrust both hands out, a massive single ball of ectoplasm surging toward Paulina. Paulina grunted and threw herself to the side at the last second, rolling just out of the way. The ecto-blast collided with the Ghost Shield surrounding the basement with such force that the walls began to spark moments before the shield went dead.

"The cure is gone." Paulina narrowed her eyes, once again sounding like the preppy teenage girl she was. "But I will find a way to cure my beloved. He needs me, and I won't let him down!" She leapt into the air, and seconds later vanished into the ceiling out of sight. Dani started to move after her, then stopped and whirled to see Maddie still lying on the floor near the wall.

"Mom!" Dani ran back toward the wall, kneeling besiede her and wrapping her arms around her neck to lift her head off the floor. "Mom, are you okay?"

"Dani..." Maddie looked up at her, then wrapped her arms around her tightly. "Dani, you're okay! You're okay!"

"I'll be fine, mom." Dani said softly. "Thanks to you. But what about you? Are you okay?" Dani pulled back and placed a gentle hand to her cheek. Maddie winced at the touch, but the smile never left her face.

"I'll be fine, Dani. Just fine." She pushed herself up slowly, but couldn't steady herself until Dani grabbed her arm. Maddie finally made it to her feet, and noticed Sam and Jazz standing near the basement entrance, watching them with relieved expressions on their faces. Dani looked at Sam, then looked up at her mother again, as if asking for permission. "Go on, Dani. I'm okay. As long as you are."

Dani smiled, then walked forward through the basement, approaching Sam. Sam stood her ground, watching her approach. Her cheeks were still wet and her eyes were red, but her face was now lit up with a bright, genuine smile.

"Did you mean it?" Dani asked softly.

"Every single word." Sam stepped forward and wrapped Dani in a tight hug, pulling her close. Dani leaned against her, resting her cheek against her shoulder. "I don't care anymore what you look like. I don't even care what you are. All I care about is that you're you. And you're here."

"Yeah... I'm here..." Dani's voice trailed off.

"Awww." Maddie smiled and cupped her hands in front of her, then remember suddenly and turned to look at Jack. She rushed up to him quickly. "Jack, are you okay?"

"Whoa..." Jack rubbed his head in confusion. "Am I still a genius?"

Maddie smiled. "Of course you are, sweetie." She wrapped her arms around her husband as tightly as she could.

Jazz looked at her mother petting her father's head tenderly, then turned to look at Sam and Dani locked in a loving embrace in the middle of the basement. She sighed softly and held Hope out at arm's length. "You love me, don't you?"

"Googaaaahhhhhh." Hope gurgled.

"I love you too." Jazz smiled and pulled her into a gentle hug.

* * *

_The whistling of the wind through the trees grew to a mighty crescendo as the two lovers stood in the middle of the empty plains, their arms wrapped around one another as their eyes locked. The wind blew their hair back as their feminine bodies intertwined without a care in the universe. All of the worries of the world were blown away on the winds of time, the hatred of the world washed away by the strength of their individuality. They were not pawns of society, nor were they shaped by it. _

_They were lovers. And it didn't matter what anyone else would think._

Sam leaned back against her headboard, looking down at the laptop that lay open in front of her. "There. That should convince mom I really did have to write a story for school." Sam grumbled slightly. She would have to be careful what excuse she gave next time she needed to talk to her. Writing stories was more taxing than she realized. Still, as she read it again now, she had to admit she kind of liked it. It was bold and daring. The kind of thing that would make the mainstream media squirm in their seats, which always made things awesome in her eyes.

She stretched out her back and let out a deep yawn. She'd spent most of last night awake with the Fentons, and then most of this morning working on the story to convince her mom she hadn't been lying about her story for school. And now she had to be at school in about two hours. Oh well, she could always get to bed early that night. She was feeling far more relaxed now that the situation with Dani had finally been resolved.

She stood up and moved to gather her clothes for her morning shower, but she stopped short in her closet when she heard a knock on her door. "It's open." She called. Her eyes widened in surprise when the door opened and Jazz stepped through, looking nervously around until she spotted Sam near the closet. "Jazz? What's wrong?"

Jazz closed the door before speaking. "Dani... just, just here. Look at this." Jazz walked up to her and pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. "I found it on Dani's bed this morning."

Sam took the paper from her and looked down at it curiously, reading it straight through.

_Dear Jazz: I know you'll find this, and yes, I really did it. But I'll be back as soon as I can. Tell mom and dad not to worry about me. There's just something I have to do. Please don't read below this, just give it to Sam for me. _

_Dear Sam: I know you said we were fine now, but I'm not happy with that. You don't deserve to have to compromise for me. I know where the Reality Gems are, and I'm going to become the man you want me to be. Just wait for me, and I'll return as soon as I can. The real me. _

_Love, Danny_

Sam stared down at the note in her hand blankly for a long time, then her fist tightened around the piece of paper and she growled deep in her throat.

"Sam, calm down." Jazz said softly. "You don't want to hurt her, she's just doing what she thinks is right."

"Hurt her?" Sam growled. "I won't hurt her Jazz. Once I find her, she'll be DEAD before she has a chance to feel pain!"

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Cured of the molecular degeneration that has held her back, Dani uses the knowledge gained from Athena's cult to track down the Gem of Form. It's been taken in by a museum curator who isn't eager to hand it to strangers, and in order to get to it Dani may have to become the kind of ghost who she fought against so frequently in the past.

Episode 09: The Gem of Form Part 1


	9. The Gem of Form Part 1

(Note: The Teen Titans are owned by DC Comics and Cartoon Network)

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

While Dani's body began to degenerate into formless ectoplasm, Maddie and Jack at last discovered the key to curing the disease. But Dark Danny has been spending all of this time waiting and plotting to get ahold of it, and he keeps himself alive inside of Paulina, who possesses all of his formidable ghost powers and uses them to launch an assault to get the cure before Dani can take it. Maddie distracts the ghost long enough for Sam to get Dani the cure, and Paulina retreats in defeat while Sam and Dani's bond grows even stronger than ever. Suddenly, Dani disappears...

Haunted Legacies Episode 09: The Gem of Form Part 1

The snow blanketed the large city that sat on the edge of the ocean, casting a white aura across the skyscraper buildings and the hundreds of thousands of people who went about their business on the streets below. The twinkling of multicolored Christmas lights issued from every building, while pictures of Santa Claus smiled and waved merrily at the passersby from every window. A chill wind swept through the city, brushing the snow against the side of the Jump City Central Museum.

Dani Fenton's thick boots crunched across the thin layer of snow on the sidewalk as she approached the building and entered through the thick glass doors. One arm idly brushed the snow from the shoulders of her thick snow coat as she looked around. The inside was well heated, and full of people examining the various paintings and sculptures, both modern and classical, that lined the walls and floors from top to bottom.

She unzipped the front of her coat as she moved further inside, her boot steps echoing through the massive rooms as she moved toward the back, examining every glass case she found with baubles inside. She had been looking for four days now for the Gem of Form. She'd found its exact landing spot on the beach near the ocean, but no matter how far she dug she couldn't find it. Then she stumbled on a newspaper headline talking about an ancient artifact that had been brought into this museum a little over a year ago. A yellow jewel cut in the shape of a diamond had been found at the beach. It was not very difficult to figure out what jewel that might be.

It took her a while, but at last, sitting in a glass case near the back of the museum with countless other old baubles and trinkets, sat the Gem of Form. It was glittering gold in the soft lights that gave the museum an antique atmosphere. Dani approached the case, resting her hands against it. Right there... it was right there. She was so close to becoming a boy again. She could just reach out and take it.

She moved her hand back and let it become intangible before moving it forward again. "Excuse me." Dani gasped and her hand slammed into the glass case painfully as she lost her concentration.

"Oooowwwwwie!" Dani stepped back, rubbing her knuckle in pain as she turned to see an older man standing behind her.

"What do you think you're doing there, kid?" The man asked with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I'm just looking." Dani looked back at the Gem of Form. "It's very pretty."

"And it'll stay that was as long as nobody tries to touch it." The man narrowed his eyes.

"How would I touch it? It's inside the glass." Dani pointed out. The man narrowed his eyes suspiciously, so Dani cleared her throat and stepped back. "Okay, I can take a hint. You don't have to get all squinty on me." She turned to walk out quickly, still tenderly rubbing her knuckles. Only when she was outside on the sidewalk did she stop to take stock of the situation.

There was no way she could get to the Gem of Form while the museum was open. There were just too many people. She supposed she could turn invisible, but it would probably be less risky to do it at night after the museum was closed. So she zipped up the front of her thick Winter coat and turned to find a nice warm store to wait in until nightfall.

* * *

Four days had done little to calm Sam's anger. Just when things looked like they could return to normal Dani had to go and pull something like this. Why didn't she at least take Sam with her? They had been through enough together for Dani to know that Sam could handle anything she had to do. It made no sense! Why why why why why!?

"Sam, try to relax." Jazz said from the sofa of the FentonWorks building. "I don't like that she ran off on her own, and trust me, mom will make her regret it when she gets back. But we know she can take care of herself, she'll come back to us and then everything can get back to normal." Jazz sighed. "Besides, she's still disoriented from her gender-switch, and I can't say I blame her."

"But I said I would be with her! I don't care if she's a girl or not!" Sam complained.

"It's not just about you, Sam. It never was." Jazz looked down at the baby lying on her stomach on the floor in front of her, struggling to hold her head off the floor and star at a shiny-mirrored rattle sitting two feet away. "This whole thing has caused her to lose her identity, her sense of self. She doesn't know what she is. I tried to help her establish a new identity to settle into... but I guess I failed. Maybe it was a mistake to even try."

"And you're saying if she becomes a boy again, she'll have her old identity back." Sam calmed down somewhat.

"Not really, your identity is based more on how you see yourself than your physical form." Jazz shook her head. "She probably doesn't even know why she's doing this. Even if she becomes a boy again, there's no guarantee that it will fix her problems. Especially after spending the last month and a half as a girl. It could only confuse matters even more."

Sam rubbed her temple with both hands. "I really hate psychology, so just give it to me in one word. Would her becoming a boy again be good or bad?"

"There is no easy answer to that. It depends on too many variables, all of them rooted in her psyche." Jazz looked up at Sam. "You were there when she first got her ghost powers. What was she like after that?"

"A wreck." Sam nodded slowly. "I guess this is sort of the same thing, then."

"Exactly." Jazz nodded. "Except this time she sees a way to go back to how she was... but that doesn't negate the new things she's experienced as a girl. Those experiences don't just go away because she becomes a boy, any more than her experiences as a boy went away when she became a girl."

"But if she became a boy again, why wouldn't it stand to reason that he'd be the same boy he was before?" Sam asked.

"If she lost her ghost powers, would she be the same person she was before she got them?" Jazz countered.

Sam opened her mouth to speak, but said nothing before closing her mouth again. Suddenly there was a soft, almost timid knock on the door. Sam walks over and pulled it open, seeing Star standing out in the snow in a thick pink Winter coat and a pair of thick blue pants, with a fuzzy Santa hat perched on top of her head with the ball dangling down in front to her face.

"Hey, Sam." Star smiled. "Is this a bad time?"

"No, no, come on in." Sam stepped back to let her in. "We were just watching Hope talk to herself." She looked down at the baby on the floor, who was now yelling at the top of her lungs at the baby reflected in the rattle.

Star giggled. "I love babies." She walked over and plopped down on the floor beside Hope, leaning her back against the couch. She took a deep breath before looking up, looking at Jazz. "You know, you two are probably the closest thing I've had to friends since I moved here. I thought Paulina was but..." She shook her head. "You've both been really great to me. And I appreciate it."

"It's our pleasure, Star." Jazz smiled.

"Yeah, the last few weeks have been fun." Sam sat down on the couch behind Star, letting her arms drape over the back of it.

Star smiled. "Well, you know Christmas is coming up in a few weeks... but my family usually goes back home for the Holidays, so I won't be around. I was wondering if you wanted to stay over at my place tonight and celebrate with me before I go."

"That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm definitely in." Jazz replied.

"I don't celebrate Christmas, but I think it sounds like fun too." Sam replied.

"You don't? Why not?" Star blinked.

"I'm Jewish, Star." Sam replied.

"Really? Huh. That explains a lot."

Sam's eye twitched. "Oh, really?"

Star gasped and put her hands up quickly. "Nononono I don't mean... ahahaha! I didn't... I didn't mean... really I... I'm sorry!" Star pleaded. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it. Please forgive me!"

Sam really wanted to give her a good tongue lashing, but in the interest of friendship and Star's mental health, she bit her tongue. "It's okay, I forgive you." She said in a soft grumble.

"We'll both be there, Star." Jazz smiled.

"Great." Star looked around. "Where's Danielle? I wanted to ask her too." Star, naturally, did not know that Danielle was formerly Danny. But they had become decent friends in recent weeks, though Dani had had too much on her mind to spend much time with her.

"Danielle is... indisposed." Jazz replied. "I'm sure she'd love to go if she could, but she's just really busy right now."

"Oh." Star sighed.

"But me and Sam would love to come. Right, Sam?"

"Right." Sam agreed curtly.

Star smiled and pushed herself up from the floor. "Great. Be at my house at seven o'clock. My mom is making pork chops for dinner." Sam cleared her throat meaningfully. "Oh... um... we'll also have salad." She said sheepishly. Sam nodded in silent acceptance. "Great! I have to go pick up some things at the store before tonight, so I'll see you both then."

"We'll see you then." Sam stood up to walk Star to the door, since Jazz was busy watching her daughter ooo and aaaa over the shiny rattle. Once Star was gone and Sam shut the door she turned back to Jazz. "Should we really be partying while Dani is out there somewhere?"

"There's nothing we can do about Dani right now, and Star is still our friend no matter what else is happening, and this is the first time she's really reached out to us. I think it's a leap in the right direction for her." Jazz reasoned.

Sam sighed. "Alright, alright." She turned back to the window, looking up at the dark, cloud-covered sky overhead. "Come back soon, Dani. I'm getting tired of being apart..."

* * *

Chill Winter's day faded to cold Winter's night earlier and earlier, and soon the darkness fell across the land while the snow that had fallen all day finally subsided and left the city as still and serene as a forest pond while most of the citizens made their way home to seek shelter from the bitter winds. The streets remained lit only by the lampposts on the sidewalks and the twinkling neon signs from the more prominent buildings in the center of the city.

Through the snow a shadow flitted from place to place, invisible to the naked eye as it flitted across the front courtyard of the Jump City Central Museum. It flitted straight through the front glass doors as if they weren't even there, making its ghostly silent way through the dark building. The security guards saw nothing, nor did the cameras that audibly spun this way and that way in the large chambers.

Dani floated into the large showroom in the back, where various random trinkets and baubles sat uselessly in glass cases that lined the walls and sat in the middle of the room. She ignored all of it, heading directly toward the large case against the back wall where she'd found the Gem of Form, which now sat as dull as a rock in the glass case with no light shining on it.

Dani stopped and landed in front of the case, placing her invisible hands against the glass. Was she really going to do this? She thought about it for a few minutes. What was she doing? Was she going to outright steal the Gem of Form? There had to be a better way. But she wasn't sure what that way was. Besides, it wasn't like she needed to keep it. She just needed to use it. Then she could put it back and that would be the end of it.

Dani became visible and slipped her arm into intangibility and moved it through the glass, grabbing the plain yellow jewel and pulling it back out. It sat innocently in the palm of her hand, as if it was no more than an ancient bauble like all the others. She knew better though. She'd seen what it could do. Now... she just had to figure out how to make it work without the Reality Gauntlet.

"Let's see. Gem of Form!" She held up the jewel over her head, but nothing happened. "Go, go, Gem of Form! Form on! Form up! Going formy! Come on!" She waved the jewel through the air in frustration when it didn't respond. "I know you can work without the gauntlet! You were going nuts the last time I found you!"

The sound of something whirling through the air alerted her a split second before something slammed hard into her wrist. Dani yelped in pain and clutched her wrist while the jewel clattered to the floor and a strange red bird-shaped weapon embedded itself into the glass case in front of her. She whirled around in shock to see a boy standing behind her, with another bird-like weapon held in one hand.

"I don't think taking things from a museum is really in the Holiday spirit." The boy narrowed his eyes behind a black eye-mask. "So how about you hand over that jewel and turn yourself in?"

"What?" Dani looked down at the jewel. "No, no, you've got it wrong! I'm not stealing it, I'm borrowing it!" The boy just stared at her blankly until Dani sighed. "Okay, I probably wouldn't believe me either." Dani knelt down and scooped the jewel up off of the floor so she could slip it into her pocket, careful not to take her eyes off of the boy. "But it's not like you can stop me, no matter what I feel like doing." Dani took to the air suddenly, her body fading from sight as she whirled and flew toward the exit.

Her eyes went wide as a flash of blue laser fire erupted from the side and slammed into her hard enough to knock her clear into the glass case on the other side of the room, which shattered form the impact. Dani collapsed to her butt, leaning against the case and groaning in pain. She gasped when she looked up to see a massive man emerging from the shadows... only it wasn't just a man. It looked like a robot with a human face.

The cyborg grinned and pointed to his left eye, which was growing bright, mechanical red. "Hope you got some better tricks than turning invisible, little lady." He raised his right arm, which ended in a massive cannon that was pointed straight at her. "I got her pinned, Robin."

"Careful, Cyborg. She can phase through solid objects, like she did with the case." Robin warned. "Try not to let her move until we can get her back to the tower."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Dani raised her arms and fired an energy pulse of her own, a green ecto-blast that slammed into Cyborg's chest and knocking him back to the floor with a thunderous crash that had to have echoed through the entire building. It wouldn't be long before the security guards would discover they were there.

Robin swept his cape around himself, then flung it aside as his arm lashed out, sending three discs hurling to the floor at Dani's feet. They exploded on impact into a cloud of obscuring smoke, which sent her into a coughing fit as she struggled to her feet. Suddenly, through the smoke, a metal staff slammed into her stomach, knocking her to the floor outside of the cloud.

Dani slid to a stop in front of the glass cases, looking up as Robin leapt out of the smoke, spinning the staff over his head. Dani went intangible and threw herself straight up, moving through the boy's stomach just before his staff slammed into the hard tiles beneath her. Dani didn't stop to exchange banter anymore, instead flying straight up through the roof to escape into the gentle starlight that made it through the cloud cover overhead.

"Geeze." Dani held her side painfully. "Who were those weirdos?"

"Those weirdos are my friends!" A voice shouted suddenly. Dani whirled in time to see a woman with orange skin streaking through the air toward her with her fist drawn. She was moving so fast Dani didn't have time to go intangible before one fist slammed into her face with the force of a thrown brick, sending her hurtling back through the air in a vertical spin.

Dani spun through the air until finally she was able to bring herself to a stop, rubbing her cheek with one hand. "Freaking OW!" She screamed in pain. "What the heck are you!? A bodybuilder!?"

"My name is Starfire, and you will not get away with your evil deeds!" The girl took off toward Danny again with her fists clenched.

Desperate to avoid another punch, Dani brought her hands forward and fired off another stream of ecto-energy. To her surprise Starfire's eyes pulsed with green energy moments before a laser burst erupted from them, halting her ecto-blast second before it could hit its mark. Dani grunted, trying to push more energy into it, but the orange girl held her blast at bay, the eye beam growing more intense to counter her.

Suddenly Dani let her blast die and went intangible, letting Starfire's eye blast pass harmlessly through her body. The orange girl blinked in surprise while Dani smirked. "Not catching me that way!" She whirled and took off in the opposite direction, but a glance back showed her that Starfire was hot on her tail, and gaining ground fast. Dani's legs faded into a single ghostly tail to help her accelerate, but still her orange pursuer was gaining ground.

"Darnit! Give up already!" Dani weaved through the city streets, moving lower in order to gain speed, but no matter how she moved Starfire paced her with ease. Finally Dani turned sharply and streaked straight toward the side of a building. A glance back told her that Starfire was growing nervous, so she went intangible and flew intangibly through the side of the building, emerging into a bathroom where she found a man sitting in a bathtub.

The man turned slowly to look up at her with wide eyes. "Um... pardon me, sir. Just passing through." Dani blushed and turned to float away, but she stopped when the hairs on the back of her neck began to rise. Slowly she turned back to the outer wall, and gasped when she saw a black vortex had opened up in front of her. "What in the world...?"

A figure floated out of the vortex, a pale girl wearing a deep blue cloak around her body, with a pair of bright white eyes shining from under a thick hood that his her face in shadows.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" The figure threw her cloak aside and thrust one hand forward. Blades of dark energy spun from her outstretched hand. Dani closed her arms around herself and went intangible, but she gasped in shock when one of the blades still sliced through her left arm, cutting deep enough to leave a deep gash that leaked bright green ectoplasm.

Dani gasped in shock and backed into the living room, holding the wound on her arm with one hand. "What the... this one can touch me while I'm intangible?" Dani gritted her teeth against the pain and watched the girl float into the living room after her.

The figure floated in front of her, her cloak wrapped around her body again. "Give up. You can't evade capture forever."

"I'm not a criminal." Dani insisted.

"Then why are you running?" The figure asked curiously. Dani lowered her eyes somewhat, and refused to respond. "Hand over the jewel and turn yourself in. You're only endangering lives by doing this. Your own, and the innocent people of this city."

Dani moved away from her, one hand moving over the jewel in her pocket. "I can't. I need it!" She whirled and threw herself into the far wall, plunging straight through it at full speed. She whipped through the rest of the building, room after room, barely taking stock of what was in each one as she passed through. She could feel the cloaked girl following her, as each vortex opened in the wall of every single room.

At last Dani emerged from the other side, and instantly had to weave through the air to avoid Starfire, who shot straight toward her like a missile that missed by mere inches. Dani flew through the air away from her as fast as she could, while the cloaked figure emerged from the building to join Starfire in a rapid chase across the city skyline. Dani clutched the wound on her arm as she flew, trying desperately to think of a way out of this.

She gasped as suddenly a wire wrapped around her body from behind. Whirling, she saw the boy from the museum standing on a rooftop, holding the other end of the wire to keep her from escaping. Dani started to become intangible, but the cloaked figure raised her arms, and suddenly the end of the wire wrapped around Dani was coated in the black energy that she had used before.

"Good work, Raven!" The boy called from the roof as he began to reel Dani in. She struggled against the wire, pulling the boy across the length of the roof while his feet slid across the cement. Suddenly Cyborg climbed up on the roof and leapt after him, landing with a heavy crunch right beside him and gripping the wire with one massive arm, stopping Dani dead in her tracks.

"No! Let me go!" Dani struggled against the wire, but she had no hope of lifting Cyborg into the air.

Starfire moved toward her, her eyes and fists glowing green. "Please, struggle no more! Someone could get hurt! Merely give us the jewel and all will be forgiven."

"I can't..." Dani looked down. She was almost at the roof. If they pulled her down and got hold of her, it was over. They would take the jewel, and she would go to prison for this. What would her parents think of her then? What would Sam think of her then? "I can't! Let go of me! Let GO!" Dani screamed at the top of her lungs, a scream that quickly grew in strength until a Ghostly Wail flooded the air.

"Eeeep!" Starfire raised her arms in front of her face to protect herself, but she couldn't fight the flood of power that pushed against her, and she flew back through the air toward the ground.

Try as he did to hold on, Robin was quickly blown across the roof, sliding across it straight off of the opposite edge.

"Robin!" Raven turned in the air to go after him, protected by a bubble of dark power that surrounded her.

Only Cyborg remained standing, his body beginning to spark with electrical energy as he held on with all his might. "I think I got a pretty big fish here!" He shouted into the wind. "Stop squirming and get your butt down here already! And cut out that racket! Whoa..." Cyborg stumbled as the force of the Ghostly Wail began to rip through the roof he was standing on.

The wire flew free from his grasp as the corner of the roof gave way, and the massive pieces of it tumbled down with Cyborg among them, flailing his arms in panic and shock. "CYBORG!" Starfire streaked down through the sky after him, but she couldn't see past him. The debris was falling straight into the traffic below, which was standing still at a red light.

"No... no!" Dani phased through the wire and took off like a rocket, her ghostly tail forming instantly behind her. She flew straight through Starfire, Cyborg, and the debris, plunging down into the cars right in the path of the falling roof. She plunged into the car right underneath the main chunk, slamming into its occupant and carrying her straight down into the ground without stopping.

She heard the car crumble into metal shards under the weight of the roof corner as the pieces came tumbling down. Screams erupted from the other drivers as the debris continued to come down, stopping only after several more pieces slammed into the pavement and other cars, though none as big as the first one.

Slowly Dani rose up through the ground, holding the frightened woman around the torso from behind. She floated above the street and set the woman down on her feet, where she promptly passed out and had to be tended to by other drivers. Dani floated a small distance away and landed on her feet, looking slowly around at the carnage that had quickly erupted on the city streets.

Robin landed on the street nearby in a crouch and stood up, holding a metal staff in front of him. Beside him Starfire set Cyborg on the ground, then moved to float in the air beside Robin, her eyes and fists glowing with green energy. Raven floated above the ground on the other side of Cyborg, her eyes glowing with mystical energy. They watched her with cautious expressions, ready to attack in an instant.

Dani looked once more around at the frightened faces of the people around her, then turned back to her four pursuers and raised her hands in surrender.

* * *

Sam stopped outside Star's small wooden shed on the outskirts of the city, shivering under the thick blanket of snow that had been coming down harder and harder all afternoon. "This is where she lives?" Sam exchanged a glance with Jazz. "I always thought she was as rich as Paulina."

"We can't judge people by how they act, as you should well know." Jazz smirked. Sam grinned mischievously while Jazz stepped forward to ring the doorbell.

"Coming!" They heard a squeaky voice shout from inside. In a few moments a pair of footsteps pounded up to the door and Star yanked it open, instantly shivering in her white T-shirt and pants combo. "Holy geeze, it's cold out there!"

"Funny how that happens when it snows." Sam smiled wryly and brushed as much snow off of her jacket as she could.

"Come in, come in." Star stepped aside to let the two girls into her home, then shut the door behind them. "You can drop your shoes by the front door. My mom really hates tracking stuff into the house. 'One with nature, not the mess' she always says." She chuckled nervously.

Jazz chuckled with her as she hung her jacket up on the coat rack beside the door, then kneeled down to take off her shoes. Sam followed suit, and soon they were both standing shoeless and jacketless in front of the door.

"Come on inside." Star gestured for them to follow her deeper down the small hallway into the living room, where two other women were waiting. "Sam, you've already met them. But Jazz, this is my sister, Moon, and my mother. Mom, Moon, this is my friend Jasmine. Or Jazz."

Jazz stepped forward and politely took Star's mother's hand. "Hello Mrs. Light."

"Please, call me Sun." Star's mother smiled.

"Hello Sun." Jazz smiled politely.

She turned to Moon next, who stepped forward and returned her handshake firmly. "Thanks for coming." Moon pulled her close to whisper. "Seriously, thank you, she's been really distraught these last few weeks and wouldn't talk to me about it."

"Believe me, I know what that feels like." Jazz whispered back, vividly recalling the first few months after Danny got his powers from the Fenton Portal. He'd gotten more and more frustrated and erratic, but refused to talk to anyone about it. She remembered how helpless she felt just standing by and watching him destroy himself. "But we're getting it under control."

"I know, she's told me a lot about you." Moon smiled. "I hate to speak ill of people... but I am so glad Paulina went missing, you know?"

"I know." Jazz nodded solemnly.

"Well, since we're all here, do you two want to watch a movie?" Star walked over to a cabinet over the modestly sized TV set against the wall and pulled it open to reveal a small collection of DVD's. "I have a couple of good movies in here... kind of old though..."

"Ooh, A Clockwork Orange." Jazz walked up and plucked a DVD out of the cabinet. "Psychological."

"Twisted." Sam walked up behind her.

"I love it." They said in unison.

Star grinned and took the DVD from Jazz. "Okay, you can sit down while I put it on."

"I'll just go finish dinner. It should be ready in an hour or so." Sun smiled.

"I'll come help, mother." Moon turned to follow her into the kitchen.

"Oh, thank you so much, Moon. I always appreciate your help." Sun said kindly. Star glanced toward the kitchen, her expression clouding slightly before she turned back to turn on the movie as if nothing had happened. Jazz and Sam exchanged a quick glance. Yes, they had both seen it. Maybe this night would do more than just help them become closer friends. It could show them why Star was having these problems in the first place.

* * *

Dani sat in a glittering cell compose entirely of powerful energy that was as solid as a cement wall whether she was solid or intangible. Not that she would try to escape anymore, she thought to herself. She leaned back against the rear wall of the cell, staring blankly out the front door where the girl in the blue cloak was sitting in a chair reading a book held a foot in front of her nose. Her hood was pulled back, revealing a round head framed by shoulder length purple hair.

Idly Dani raised one hand to the wound on her arm, and blinked in surprise when she didn't feel anything. She looked at her shoulder, but the wound was gone. Even her top had repaired itself where the black energy had gone straight through. She'd never been able to heal herself before...?

Dani pushed herself up from the floor and approached the front of the cell, leaning her hands against it and watching her read for a moment. "So who are you guys?" She soon asked. Raven looked at her out of the corner of her eye. "I've never seen anything like you before. I didn't know there were any others like me."

"We're not like you. We're not criminals." Raven closed her book and turned slightly in her seat to face her. "We are the Teen Titans. We protect this city from criminals that the police can't handle."

"Will you please stop calling me that?" Dani asked. "I didn't mean to steal it, I just wanted to use it. And then Technicolor Boy showed up and attacked me."

"His name is Robin."

"How did you know I was there, anyway?" Dani asked.

Raven smirked. "I see no reason to give our secrets to you." She stood up from her chair and approached the cell. She wasn't much taller than Dani was, now that she was standing on the ground instead of floating around. "I do have to wonder. Why did you skip everything else in the museum and go straight for that jewel?" She asked. Dani blinked and surprise. "There were plenty of things in that museum worth far more than a colored diamond."

"That's a good question." Dani and Raven both turned when the door at the front of the small prison at the bottom of the massive tower slid open, and Robin walked into the room. "You have an answer for us?" He asked simply.

Dani turned away from them and leaned against the front of the energy cell, shoving her hands into her pockets. She heard the steel soles of Robin's boots clank across the ground as he approached the front of the cell.

"If you won't tell us that, how about giving us a name?" Robin asked. Dani remained silent once again, refusing to look at them. "Raven, thanks for keeping watch. I have it from here."

"Okay. Contact me if you need me." Raven's footsteps turned to leave the prison cells.

Dani turned her head curiously to watch them out of the corner of her eye. Her eyes went wide when she saw Robin holding up the Gem of Form in one hand between his thumb and his index finger. Dani turned back to face him, putting her hands against the energy field that kept them apart.

"Give it to me. Please." Dani said.

"Why? What is it?" Robin asked. Dani bit her lip. She really didn't want anyone else to know about the Reality Gems. They were too powerful, too dangerous to become common knowledge. "I saw what you did on the streets. I saw you save that woman. I don't think you're just another criminal, but if you had a reason for doing what you did, I need to know what it is. Maybe we can help you."

"I can't." Dani shook her head. "If you give me the gem, I'll return it as soon as I'm done with it. I swear!"

"I can't take your word for it." Robin replied. "If you won't tell me what is going on, I have no choice but to assume you're just another petty criminal trying to gain sympathy." Robin's eyes didn't falter as he stared into Danny's, still holding the glittering yellow Reality Gem between them. Dani looked down at the gem, then back up into Robin's eyes, but said nothing. "It's up to you." Robin closed his fist around the gem and turned to leave.

"It's called the Gem of Form." Dani said finally. Robin stopped and turned to look back at her. "It's not just a jewel. It has powers."

"What kind of powers?" Robin asked.

"It can transform things. Cars into boats. Lamps into scrap metal... people into other forms..." Dani trailed off.

"And what do you need it for?" Robin asked.

Dani fidgeted nervously. "It's kind of personal..." Robin narrowed his eyes, so she steeled herself and told the truth. "There was an accident a while ago that... that altered my form. I'm not supposed to be a girl, I'm supposed to be a boy." Robin raised one eyebrow in confusion, looking down across her body. "Hey, eyes up here, buster." Dani pointed to her face.

"I see." Robin looked down at the gem in his palm. "I'll look into that. For now, you stay put. If you're telling the truth, we'll see where we go from there." He turned to leave. "We'll try to get this checked out soon. Hang tight in the meantime." Robin left, letting the prison door swing shut behind him.

Dani leaned forward against the energy field and looked around the room. She saw a camera hidden in the far wall, which swept slowly back and forth across the row of small cells. Dani made her way to the far side of her energy bubble, then when the camera had passed she reached into her pocket and whipped out her cellular phone.

"Good thing I thought to turn this intangible when he searched me." She flipped it open and quickly entered Sam's phone number, hoping she wouldn't kill her when she found out where she was.

* * *

Jazz sat around the small wooden table in the Light's dining room, around which Jazz, Star, Moon, and Sun were gathered and enjoying the meal of pork chops that Mrs. Light had been kind enough to prepare for them. Sam refused to even touch the things, so as promised Star had made her a salad just for her, which Sam seemed to really appreciate. It was a pleasant dinner, all in all, with pleasant banter being exchanged among those gathered.

"So, Jasmine." Star's mother, Sun, turned toward Jazz from the end of the table. "I hear you have a baby."

"Oh, yeah." Jazz smiled. "I have a baby girl. She's almost two months now."

"Ooohhhh." Sun sighed wistfully and placed a hand over her chest. "That is so precious. I truly believe that childbirth is one of life's most precious gifts to womankind."

"Really?" Jazz cocked her head curiously.

"Oh yes. The feeling of creating life, the gift that it brings is the most wonderful thing on the planet." Sun smiled.

"Oh, yeah. It sure was a blast..." Jazz cleared her throat and took a long drink of milk from her nearby glass.

Sun laughed. "Not that part, my dear. Watching them grow into their own people, struggle and fight to accomplish their dreams only to accomplish everything they could to be." She looked over at Moon and gave her a warm smile. Moon blushed and looked down at the table demurely. Jazz glanced off to the other side to see Star staring down at her plate, poking her pork chop without moving to actually eat any of it.

"I see..." Jazz said thoughtfully. Everyone at the table turned to look at Sam as a deep, gothic ring began to sound from underneath the table. Sam looked down in surprise, then pulled her cell phone out of a hidden pocket in her skirt. She looked at the number, then her eyes went wide and she gave Jazz a meaningful glance.

"Excuse me, I should really take this." Sam stood up and quickly moved into the next room, leaving Jazz and the Lights to exchange curious glances. Despite being in the next room, they could still hear Sam's voice muted by the door. "Go on. ... Uh-huh. ... You're where? ... Who? ... You did what? ... I see. ... Yeah, buh-bye." Everyone looked toward the door moments before she emerged. "Jazz, we have to go. Now."

"What? Go?" Star's eyes went wide. "Why, why, why do you have to go?" She stuttered and stood up.

"We have an emergency to take care of." Sam turned to march quickly toward the front door, looking focused and worried at the same time.

"Wait! Did I do something wrong!?" Star rushed to catch up with her while Sam slipped her boots back on by the front door. "Did I say something wrong? Is ranch dressing not kosher? Is it my shirt? I was thinking of wearing the black one tonight but-"

"Calm down!" Sam shouted, silencing Star instantly. "There's nothing wrong, we're just in a hurry." Sam pulled on her thick black trench coat and opened the front door. The cold air instantly blew into the house, but she stepped immediately out into it.

"But... but..." Star stared after her, her eyes growing wet with tears. "This was my first Christmas party with real friends..." She sniffled and turned her gaze to the floor. Jazz stood up once she had her shoes on and grabbed her coat, but hesitated to put it on. She didn't want to abandon Star. The girl had been making a lot of progress but was still so psychologically fragile. Being ditched during her first attempt to organize a group activity for her friends could have lasting repercussions.

"Jazz!" Sam poked her head back into the house. "We've got to hurry! Something's wrong!"

Jazz looked at Sam, then turned to approach Star. She placed one gentle hand on Star's chin, making her look up to meet her eyes. "Do you want to come with us?" Jazz smiled.

"Really!?" Star's eyes lit up. "O... okay! Let me ask my mom!" She whirled to run back into the kitchen.

"Jazz!" Sam walked up behind her. "What are you doing? If she comes she could find out all about Dani!"

"We can't abandon her now. It could undo all of the progress she's made over the last couple months." Jazz replied. "Besides, I trust her."

"I trust her too, but this is Dani's life we're talking about here." Sam said worriedly. "If we're wrong and she squeals..."

"Sam, how many times have I been wrong about something this important?" Jazz asked.

Sam blinked, then smirked. "Would you like a bulleted list or was that a rhetorical question?"

"Now that's just hurtful." Jazz glared. "Please, trust me. I know what I'm doing."

"Alright." Sam nodded cautiously. "I know you wouldn't do something if you didn't think it was in Dani's best interest. I just hope you know what you're doing."

"Thank you." Jazz looked back into the house as Star returned, dressed in her thick Winter garments and smiling broadly.

"Okay, I'm ready to go. So... where ARE we going?" Star asked.

Jazz walked up to her and slung one arm companionably around her shoulders as the three girls turned to leave. "Come on Star. We have a lot to talk about."

* * *

Dani leaned back against the wall of her energy prison, staring at the floor in front of her. It had been hours since she called Sam. She knew she'd made it pretty far from Amity Park, but with the Specter Speeder they should have been here by now. Was Sam purposely letting her rot in prison? Well, Dani couldn't blame her if she was. The more she thought about it the dumber it seemed. She should never have tried to just take the gem. She didn't want to be a criminal. And it didn't matter why she did it, it was a crime...

Her gaze lifted from the ground when she heard the door of the prison area slide open. Robin entered the prison cells with a steady look on his face, stopping in front of the powerful energy field to look at her. Dani waited for him to speak, but she grew impatient when he didn't.

"Are you a pervert or something?" Dani blushed slightly. "Stop staring at me like that."

"It would make both of our lives a lot easier if you could give me some more information." Robin told her. "Like your name."

Dani looked down at the floor, then back up at him. "Dani. Dani Phantom."

"Dani Phantom. I assume that's not on your birth certificate."

"Close enough." Dani replied.

"Anything else you can tell us about the gem will be helpful too, Dani." Robin approached the cell with a kind, but commanding glint in his masked eye. "You said it was able to transform things, but we haven't been able to find anything about it in any literature or historical books. Even Raven can't tell us much about it, and this is her field of expertise." They stared at each other for several long minutes before Robin spoke again. "Help us help you, Dani."

Suddenly the lights flashed overhead an instant before the entire tower faded into total darkness along with the energy cell that kept Dani trapped. Barely another second passed before secondary, dimmer lights flared to life. Dani touched the floor, realizing that the energy field had returned with the lights.

"What?" Robin looked around in alarm. "Are we under attack?" He turned to leave, but stopped when Dani threw herself against the front of the energy cell.

"Wait! The Gem of Form, you've got to keep it safe!" Dani exclaimed.

"Huh?" Robin turned around. "It may be magic, but it's just transformation isn't it? We can overcome that."

"It's not just transformation. It's one part of the most powerful force in existence." Dani said. "If it falls into the wrong hands, it could mean the end of the world!" The two of them stared at each other for a while, until finally Robin seemed satisfied that she wasn't lying.

"Stay here. I'll go see what's going on." Robin made his way out into the hallway, leaving Dani alone in the cell. Dani looked around at the dark room, her eyes narrowing in worry. Something bad was happening... something bad and strangely familiar. She could feel something inside herself resonating with whatever was causing this. Suddenly her eyes went wide when she realized what it was.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Titans Tower is under siege! Someone has followed Dani to Jump City, and will stop at nothing to get their hands on the Gem of Form. The Titans seem powerless to stop the attack, but that doesn't stop them from trying. Meanwhile, Sam, Jazz, and Star reach Jump City in a bid to rescue Dani, unaware that they're about to stumble right into the middle of a war.

Episode 10: The Gem of Form Part 2


	10. The Gem of Form Part 2

(Note: The Teen Titans are owned by DC Comics and Cartoon Network)

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Dani went to Jump City to find the Gem of Form, but attempted to steal the gem from a museum and was captured by the city's guardians, the Teen Titans! Now she waits in an energy cell, unable to escape. Meanwhile, Sam and Jazz prepare to spend Star's last night before her Christmas Vacation with her, but their plans are cancelled before their heads even hit the pillows. So they take off together to help Dani, while telling Star all of their secrets. Suddenly, at Titans Tower, something goes wrong...

Haunted Legacies Episode 10: The Gem of Form Part 2

"Cyborg, what's going on?" Robin strode into the suddenly dim lights of the Teen Titans' command center on the bottom floor of the tower. Cyborg and Starfire were already in the command center, examining the console near the large window, which was fogged over from the blizzard that now raged outside.

Cyborg's hands flew across the console in front of him with practiced ease, his metallic fingers moving with robotic precision. "The main generator's been kicked offline. We're running on the backup generator now."

"Could it be a system malfunction?"

"No way. The line's not responding at all and I just made repairs last week. It has to have been cut."

"But that's impossible. The main generator is in the basement. Nobody could get to it without going through the tower," Robin pointed out.

"Or going through the walls." Raven pointed out from the doorway leading into the command center. She entered the room and approached Robin, holding up the strange yellow stone they had caught Dani Phantom trying to steal. "I've examined this as thoroughly as I can. There's some kind of power hidden inside it, but its scope is too vast for me to pinpoint exactly what it does." She shook her head. "It's strange though. It's almost like it has gaps in its power... like there are pieces missing."

"So she was telling the truth." Robin took the Gem of Form from his good friend and held it up in the dim light. "Whoever would want this must be incredibly powerful."

"Powerful enough to knock the generator offline," Cyborg suggested.

"Does this mean that we are under attack?" Starfire's hands balled up in front of her as she glanced around nervously. "But I have seen no attackers."

"Just because we can't see them doesn't mean they're not there. They were just smart enough to knock out the tower's defenses first." Robin held the gem out to Raven again. "Take this somewhere safe. And keep it safe no matter what happens to the rest of us. If Dani is telling the truth, then we can't let this fall into the wrong hands. Got it?"

"Keep it? But Robin..." She looked up at his eyes, then nodded solemnly. "Understood." Raven took the gem from him before her body faded into the shadows of her cloak, melting into the ground and out of sight.

Robin turned back to his other teammates. "We've got to-" He jumped and whirled back toward the main entrance of the tower when he heard the thick steel doors begin creaking.

Robin turned to the door, reaching into his belt to draw forth a small metal rod, which sprang to its full length as a metal bo staff clutched in one hand. He heard Cyborg's thunderous steps move beside him along with the sound of his cannon charging up for combat. Starfire landed gracefully on his other side, her eyes and hands glowing with alien green energy.

The steel doors at the front of the tower groaned under the strain of being pushed from outside, then suddenly the edges burst inward and they fell into the tower with a pair of thunderous crashes that momentarily deafened the three Titans. The snow beyond the doors continued to come down in a torrent that blocked out the sight of the city, making it seem as if Titans Tower was the only piece of land in the world.

A stream of figures clad in white robes calmly strode across the fallen doors, splitting once inside to line the walls. Up the middle of the two lines of figures came one more clad in a white robe This one had a mane of light blonde visible under the hood. As she stopped in the middle of the main entranceway, the figure raised its hands to draw the hood back, revealing an older, wizened woman with cold blue eyes.

"What do you want?" Robin demanded.

"To the point. Very well. I am Athena, and we have come for the Reality Gem. They are ours by right, you see. So the right thing is to give them to us."

"Interesting argument." Robin smirked. "But somehow, it doesn't seem like you want to use the gem for the betterment of mankind."

"How we use it is up to us." Athena raised one hand, which began to glow with piercing white light. "Now give us that which is rightfully ours. Or we will take it by force." The robed figures lining the walls all held up their hands, and piercing white light began shining from their palms.

Robin's gaze swept across the entrance hall of Titans Tower. There were at least three dozen of the robed figured, and they all seemed to have powers comparable to the one in the middle. A battle would be difficult, if not impossible to win even with all five Titans. Down by two as they were, they might not even stand a chance. But they didn't have much choice in the matter, as surrender was never an option.

"You cannot win." Athena assured him. "You can surrender and give us the gem, or you can make us take it."

"Only one thing to say really..." Robin gripped his staff tighter and stepped forward. "Titans, go!" He leapt forward through the air, with Cyborg and Starfire behind him. But they had barely moved before white lightning flashed from every figure around them, and the world faded to white.

* * *

"It's so hard to believe..." Star stared at her redheaded friend in awe as the strange metal hovercraft they called the Specter Speeder flew through the thick blizzard that had engulfed Jump City several. They vehicle had been buzzing back and forth through the buildings for the last two hours searching for the building Dani described, but they couldn't see it anywhere. From coast to coast they'd searched, but there was no sign of a building in the shape of a giant T.

"Trust me, I know the feeling." Jazz shivered, breathing on her hands through her thick winter gloves. "I can't believe dad forgot to install a heater in this thing either. It's like a fridge in here."

Star shook her head. "Not that, about Danny. You mean all this time he's been a superhero and nobody ever knew it? And then he was turned into a girl by being mysteriously thrust into the body of his female clone, who is also a superhero, while his evil old-ghostly-half ran off with Paulina to terrorize the world in a fit of evil and megalomania? Now he's gone missing halfway across the country looking for an ancient magical artifact to become a boy again?"

"It does sound pretty strange when you put it that way." Sam said from the front, where she was steering the Specter Speeder and trying to peer out through the frost-covered windshield in search of their destination. "I guess after so long I've kind of gotten used to really weird things happening to Dani."

"Do you think Paulina's okay?" Star asked more softly.

"She chose to go with him." Jazz reminded her. "Sam saw it with her own eyes."

"I did." Sam confirmed from the pilot's seat. "Now if you two could help me find this stupid T building it would be a huge help. Because I'm just not seeing it."

"Maybe she meant a P building." Jazz suggested.

"No, it was a T!" Sam countered. "Besides, I haven't seen any P buildings either. Or B's. Or G's."

"Maybe E?" Star suggested helpfully.

"No! T!" Sam insisted.

"Fine, it's a T." Star raised her hands defensively. Sam huffed and turned back to watch where she was going while Star approached the window, resting her gloved hands against the glass and trying to squint through the wall of white powder that almost made the world around them look invisible. The fact that it was also the middle of the night didn't help them see any better. "Maybe we should find some shelter, I think the blizzard is getting worse."

"Star has a point." Jazz moved up to the front of the Specter Speeder, her hands jammed in the pockets of her thick coat to keep warm. "We can barely see the ground thirty feet from it, and we're not getting anywhere like this. Maybe we can keep looking after the blizzard lets up."

"Dani needs us right now, we can't just stop looking." Sam replied. "She has to be in this city somewhere." She looked down outside of the windshield, her expression going blank. "Are we even in the city anymore?" Star and Jazz joined her to peer outside downward. They could vaguely see movement through the thick cloud of snow, but it didn't come from cars or people. It was water.

"That's not the city. It's the ocean." Jazz pointed out.

"Great, now which way back to land?" Sam sat back and rubbed her eyes in frustration.

Star lifted her eyes from the ocean to see a wall of glass looming out of the blizzard in front of them. She let out a piercing shriek and pointed. "TEEEEEEEEE!"

"Whoa!" Sam reached for the control panel, but it was far too late. The Specter Speeder collided with the top floor of the tower, smashing through the glass and skidding across the floor inside. Star screamed as the sudden stop slammed her stomach into the seat in front of her, slipping her over it and down against the dashboard upside down. She heard Jazz and Sam scream at the same time over the sound of smashing glass and metal striking metal, but she couldn't see where they were.

The noise faded as the last of the glass crashed to the ground, and the Specter Speeder's engine shut down. Star blinked to try to clear her head, but her vision was still clouded when she saw a dark head move up in front of her.

"Star! Star, are you okay!?" Sam's voice shuddered fearfully.

"I'm okay..." Star's voice was shaking as she spoke. "Just woozy..."

"Hey, come on. Careful now." Sam grabbed her shoulders and carefully pulled her forward. Star winced as her bruised back slid against the control panel, but soon she fell to her butt on the seat with Sam holding up her torso. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." Star held up one hand to ward off her questions while she shook her head clear. When she looked around, she saw they were in a comfortably furnished living room, with a massive TV screen now lying smashed on the floor underneath the Specter Speeder. Star's gaze swept the dimly lit room, darting back and forth in a panic. "Jazz... where's Jazz?"

"Jazz?" Sam stood up on her seat. "Jazz!" She leapt onto the front of the Specter Speeder through the shattered windshield, carefully jumping off of it to the floor. "Jazz, are you okay!? Say something!"

Star climbed out of the broken windshield, careful not to touch any of the broken glass as she slid down the front of the Specter Speeder and landed on the floor. "Jazz!"

"Uhn..." They both fell silent when they heard a pained groan from further into the living room. They rushed forward toward the comfortable sofa in the middle of the room, and saw Jazz lying sprawled out on the floor behind it. Blood was leaking down her forehead and there were several shards of glass on the floor around her.

"Jazz!" They both rushed over to her. Sam dropped to her feet and gently lifted her torso off the floor, brushing her bangs out of the way to reveal the nasty gash on her forehead. "Star, get us some bandages from the glove box."

"Right!" Star rushed back to the Specter Speeder and returned a moment later with the bandages, handing them over to Sam so she could unwrap them and carefully wrap up the bleeding cut on Jazz's head. Jazz groaned again and opened her eyes, but they looked unfocused.

"Jazz, are you okay?" Sam asked worriedly.

"Let this teach you something... seatbelts exist for a good reason." Jazz groaned and put one hand tenderly against her bandage. Sam and Star exchanged a glanced and heaved a shared sigh of relief. She would be just fine.

"Who are you?" Sam and Star jerked to attention and looked to the side when they heard a sharp, commanding voice from the main entrance of the living room. A figure in a white robe was standing in the doorway, holding his hand out in front of him. The tips of his fingers were shining with light that shone across them like a powerful spotlight in the dimly lit room.

"Wait!" Sam stood up, holding out her hands. "We don't want to fight, we just want to see Dani."

"The phantom." The figure's hand grew brighter. "Then you would seek to oppose us too."

"Somehow, I don't think he's one of the good guys..." Jazz muttered, sliding back until her back hit the sofa.

"Anyone who opposes the Order of Chaos will be destroyed." His hand pulsed brighter, a ball of energy forming in his palm. Sam, Star, and Jazz huddled together close to the sofa, watching the energy ball grow in intensity.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" A voice echoed through the large chamber as a thick black energy spread across a sheet of steel on the roof. Suddenly it came crashing down right on top of the white-robed figure with a sickening crunch and a clank of metal on metal. When the dark energy faded, there was no sign of the man who lay underneath. The three girls looked up from the steel to see a girl with gray skin and a blue cloak moving on top of it, a pair of glowing white eyes staring out from under a shadowy hood.

"Who are...?" Sam's voice shook.

"We don't have time. They're going to come looking for him." The blue-cloaked figure told them. "My name is Raven, this tower is under siege by powerful sorcerers, and we are going to get somewhere safe before we are all killed." She turned to march out of the living room. Sam, Jazz, and Star exchanged only a momentary glance before turning to rush out after her.

* * *

Dani leaned back against the back of her energy cell curled into a ball, watching over her knees as the white-robed figures hauled Cyborg across the prison, powerful white energy wrapped around his unconscious form. The figures thrust their hands forward, and the energy sent the massive man hurtling into the cell next to Dani, where his body slammed into the cold hard steel with a deafening crash.

"Cyborg!" Starfire floated into the cell and landed beside him, kneeling down to make sure he was okay, even though her own body was blackened as if tossed into an open flame. Other robed figures shoved Robin into the cell, slamming the door closed before he could turn and make a break for it.

Athena emerged from the crowd of white robes, approaching the steel cell containing the Teen Titans. Her gaze swept over the three of them, then settled on Robin, who was standing near the door of the cell with a defiant look on his face. "Our monitors said there were four of you in the city. Where is the fourth?"

"I don't know." Robin folded his arms across his chest. "She could be miles away from here by now."

Athena snarled. "And the Reality Gem?"

"Gone." Robin's face remained a calm mask. Athena stared at his face, then chuckled and shook her head.

"Maybe you're lying... maybe you're not. We'll tear this place apart to find out the truth." Athena told him. "And if we find that your friend has the gem, we'll tear her apart as well." Robin's face remained a cold mask until Athena turned away from him, approaching the glowing energy cell where Dani remained trapped sitting against the rear wall. "I suppose I should thank you for catching this traitorous wretch for me."

"You followed me here, didn't you?" Dani asked without moving.

"Very astute, child." Athena nodded. "We've been keeping an eye on you since the ritual. We knew you would go for the Reality Gems eventually. It was just a matter of waiting, and our patience has paid off."

"You're insane." Dani told her.

"Perhaps. But we have won." Athena held up her hand, pressing it against the energy field. "There's nothing you can do to stop us from getting the Reality Gem now. And once we have it, we'll be able to use it to find the other three. And then the world will be made anew." She pulled her hand away from the field and turned away from the cell, speaking to the other robed figures. "Come, we'll search the building from top to bottom until we find the Gem of Form." Athena left the prison with the rest of her group, leaving Dani and the Titans trapped in the cells.

Robin turned away from the front of the cell and approached Starfire, who was stroking Cyborg's cheeks and looking into his eyes. "How is he?"

"He has not responded to me." Starfire said worriedly. "I fear that he has suffered much damage. We must repair him."

"Not much we can do in this cell." Robin approached the bars and gripped one of them in a tight fist. "We designed these cells to hold anything... even each other if it became necessary."

"I'm sorry." Dani said softly. Robin and Starfire both turned to look at her through the bars of their cell and the energy field of Dani's. "If I'd just stayed home, none of this would've happened."

"Don't blame yourself. You didn't know they were tracking you." Robin replied.

"If they really do get all the Reality Gems... geeze, I really screwed up this time." Dani put her hands on her head. "The entire world could be screwed..."

Starfire heaved a deep sigh. "I wish Beast Boy were here. He would make the jokes and make things seem not so horrible."

"Don't give up yet." Robin told them. "Raven's still loose, and she's guarding the Reality Gem. She'll come through for us." He turned back to his friends and knelt down beside Cyborg. "For now, let's try to get Cyborg back online."

* * *

The wind was bitter cold as it swept through the black night sky, which was alight with glittering white snow that flew almost horizontal through the air. A pair of footsteps tromped across the snow-covered roof of Titans Tower, the white robes leaving a wide path in his wake as he moved. His hand was shining bright enough to illuminate the entire roof, but he could see nothing up there.

"There's nothing up here." His partner said curtly, clearly shivering. "If they did come up here, they must have left by now. Or jumped off the building and saved us some hassle. Either way, let's get inside. This cold is killing me."

"Yeah, let's go." The first man turned to head back into the door that led down into Titans Tower.

A small panel nearby lifted from the roof, plopping into the snow as a pair of pale hands gripped the side of the roof. Raven pulled herself up, the wind whipping her cloak around her body violently as she turned to help Jazz climb out of the small compartment. She was followed shortly by Sam and Star, who sat back on their feet to avoid kneeling in the thick, cold snow.

"Thanks." Jazz sniffed. "I think he was about to-"

"Who are you?" Raven turned on them, narrowing her eyes. "Don't think I didn't notice that you broke into our tower and destroyed our TV."

"Hehe... yeah, sorry about that. It was an accident." Sam cleared her throat.

"We're friends of Dani Phantom." Jazz said quickly. "We got a call that she ran into some trouble here in Jump City. We came to help her."

"The ghost." Raven nodded. "She's in the tower's prison." Raven reached into her cloak and pulled out a small device with a white T engraved on the front. "Robin's communicator signal is coming from there too, but I haven't been able to reach it. There are too many of those sorcerers wandering about. I can't get close without being spotted."

"Are you kidding? What you did in the living room was awesome! You could probably take them all out!" Star exclaimed.

Raven shook her head. "I caught that one by surprise. These people may be insane, but they're also powerful. And there are way too many for me to take on alone. I wouldn't stand a chance."

"If we could get to the prison and free Dani and your friends, do you think you could take them on then?" Jazz asked.

"Maybe. But I can't get close." Raven repeated.

"But if you can draw their attention away from the prison, maybe we can." Jazz replied.

Raven narrowed her eyes, as if examining the three girls from the deep shadows of her hood. "It's worth a shot. But I'll need you to do something for me." Raven reached into the depths of her cloak, and in a moment held up her hand with a dull yellow stone in the shape of a diamond laying in her palm. "Robin sent me away to keep this safe. If I'm going to be fighting, I need you to hold onto it for me."

Sam's eyes went wide. "The Reality Gem! Dani actually found it?"

Raven nodded and handed it over to her. "If this fails, you three are going to have to get that gem out of here. I've sensed how powerful it is, and it doesn't belong in the hands of a lunatic."

"We'll keep it safe. Just take care of yourself." Sam nodded and closed her fist around the gem.

"I'll be fine as long as you hurry." Raven took a small map out of her cloak and handed it to Sam. Suddenly Jazz sneezed and the other three turned to look at her.

"'Scuse me." Jazz sniffled. "I don't handle the cold very well."

Raven straightened her back and turned to walk toward the door of the tower. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go call attention to myself. Wait for my signal, then get to the prison" She pushed the roof door open and vanished inside the tower.

Star looked back and forth between Sam and Jazz. "Is every day this weird for you guys?"

"Eh, I've seen worse." Sam replied.

Jazz sneezed again, then wiped her nose with the back of her glove. "Ugh... what do you think the signal is?" Suddenly a beam of black energy burst through the middle of the tower, arching high into the snow-covered sky to spread into the form of a massive, black raven that screamed into the night for a moment before fading away. The three girls exchanged a glance.

"That was awesome." Star said appreciatively.

"Come on, let's go find Dani." Sam stood up and turned to head for the door with the others following close behind.

* * *

Robin wiped his forehead with the back of his hand before returning to work on Cyborg's chest plate, carefully trying to figure out how his systems worked and what would be wrong with him. The sweat was beading on his forehead, threatening to fall into Cyborg's systems, so he frequently had to wipe his brow as he worked. He narrowed his eyes in concentration, trying to hook Cyborg's backup power supply to his life support systems.

Suddenly Starfire sucked in a deep breath and blew on his face with a blast that blew his hair to the back of his head and sent his sweat flying into the wall with a sick splat. Robin looked up at her slowly. "Thanks, Star."

"I welcome you." Starfire smiled cutely.

"And... there we go." Robin slipped the last wire into Cyborg's power supply, and the blue circuitry on Cyborg's body flared to life, flashing with light before settling into a steady hum.

"Ooh..." Cyborg groaned as his cybernetic eye flashed to life and his human eye opened. "What happened? Did we win?"

"Cyborg! You have been repaired!" Starfire wrapped her arms around the big man's neck, squeezing him tightly. "It is most wonderful to see you awake!"

"I'm fine, Star. Well, except that I can't feel my right hand." Cyborg looked down.

"Sorry, I did the best I could," Robin told him with a trace of a smile.

Cyborg let Starfire help him to his feet, looking around at the bars that contained them. "So I'm guessing we didn't win."

"Afraid not. But Raven's still out there somewhere." Robin replied. "There's still a chance as long as she's free."

"Hey." The three Teen Titans looked over when Dani Phantom spoke from the next cell over. "Cyborg, right? I'm sorry for putting you through that. This was all because of me."

Cyborg waved off her apology with his left hand. "Bah. This kinda stuff happens all the time." He reached up and plucked his right hand off of his wrist. "Who needs this thing anyway?" He tossed it over his shoulder and held up the stump of his arm, which glowed with blue energy. "I'm gonna need this more once I get out of here and get my hands on those psycho jerks anyway."

"Ssshh..." Robin held up his hands suddenly. "Does anyone else hear that?" The four of them fell silent, listening. The sound of impacts and yells was coming through the walls, soon punctuated by the sound of a massive explosion that made the entire tower rock to one side, as if about to tumble into the ocean before it swayed back into place. "No. They must've found Raven."

"Sounds like she's giving 'em heck." Cyborg noted.

"We've got to get out there and help her. We've got to get out of this cell." Robin gripped the bars tightly.

"Step aside." Cyborg lifted his arm cannon.

"And we shall create a new door." Starfire lifted her hands, which began to glow with eerie green energy.

"Hold on!" Dani shouted when she saw the door on the other side of the bars beginning to creak open. In another few moments, a familiar head poked through, with shoulder-length black hair and deep violet lipstick. "Sam!?"

"Dani!" Sam flung the door open and rushed into the prison, running up against the energy field. Dani moved as close as she could, placing her hands over Sam's. "When I get in there, I am going to KILL you! What were you thinking!? You know I can't stand it when you run off alone half-cocked! What do you have to say for yourself!?" Sam snarled viciously.

"I... I... I..." Dani stammered nervously. "I love you..." She smiled.

Sam growled. "You love me? If you love me you won't make me spend four days wondering whether or not you're dead! When we get home we are gonna-"

"Jazz!" Dani looked over Sam's shoulder to see two more figures enter the room. The first was her sister, the second was... "Star?"

"Hey Dani!" Star rushed up to his energy cell. "Why didn't you tell me you were a ghost superhero? That's so cool!"

"Wh... what?" Dani looked at Sam. "You told Star!? I trusted you!"

"Oh you don't get to talk about trust, Dani Phantom! Not until I can trust you not to vanish without warning and get sent to JAIL!"

"Point taken..." Dani muttered demurely.

Jazz approached the second cell, in which the Teen Titans were imprisoned. "How do I open these things?"

"Control panel. Just punch 67490 into the keypad to turn on the emergency override. It should open all of the cells." Robin told her. Jazz approached the panel and punched in the indicated numbers. The loud click of a lock on the Titans' cell sounded at the same time as the energy field surrounding Dani vanished into thin air, leaving Dani and Sam leaning against each other.

Dani looked at Sam's eyes, but Sam pulled her hand back and slapped her across the face. "Jerk."

"You've got to hurry." Jazz pulled the door of the Teen Titans' cage open, letting them out of the cell. "Raven is holding their attention, but she can't keep them off for long."

"We'll go try to get her out of there. The rest of you get out of the tower and find a place to hide." Robin told them.

"I'm coming with you." Dani moved away from Sam to approach Robin with a solemn look on her face. "I'm the reason you were all put in danger like this. I'm not going to run off and let you deal with the consequences." Robin looked at him, then looked over his shoulder at Starfire and Cyborg, who were standing to each side of him.

"I welcome the aid of our new friend." Starfire nodded.

"We could use all the help we can get." Cyborg added.

"Looks like you're with us." Robin turned to look at Dani again. "Come on, we have to help Raven." He turned to leave, followed quickly by Cyborg and Starfire.

Dani moved to follow, but Sam grabbed her shoulder, spun her around on her heels, and caught her in a deep, passionate kiss. Dani's body went stiff in shock while Star gasped and Jazz just looked on with a hint of a smile on her lips. After a few moments Dani melted in her arms, going limp until Sam was holding her up with her arms around her torso, holding her almost parallel to the floor.

When Sam finally broke the kiss Dani giggled. "Wow... been way too long since I had one of those..."

Sam pulled Dani to her feet, holding her shoulders with both hands. "Be careful, Dani."

"Always." Dani grinned, her eyes flashing brightly with green ecto-energy. "I'll be back for more!" She ducked out of Sam's arms, then threw herself at the wall, phasing straight through it.

Sam stared after her, smiling to herself. Slowly, Star slipped across the floor until she was beside Jazz to whisper. "When did Sam become Gay?"

Sam turned to look back at her, amused rather than angry. "When I remembered the person who made me smile when I didn't think I ever would again." Star blinked, then blushed and nodded slightly.

Jazz stepped in. "Come on. We should try to get somewhere safe. Something tells me the worst may be ahead of us."

* * *

An explosion rocked the tower as a burst of energy detonated in the middle of the primary Titans command center. Raven's scream was cut short by the impact of her body slamming into the wall beside the large window, where she lay weakly on the floor. Her breath came in quick gasps and her flesh was blackened and burned. Her cloak had long since been destroyed by the onslaught of the three dozen figures who approached now to form a circle around her.

"Are you ready to tell me what I wish to know?" The one in the middle of the group asked, her blue eyes shining with anger. "Where is the Reality Gem?"

Raven raised one hand in front of her, taking in a painful breath. "Azarath... met-GRK!" Raven gasped in pain when a tendril of white energy leapt from the woman's palm, wrapping itself around her throat. Athena slowly lifted her hand skyward, and the energy bond between them lifted with it. Raven's back slid up the wall, until soon her legs were kicking desperately at thin air. She tried to pry the energy away with her fingers, and her eyes flashed in desperation, but she was too exhausted to fight back.

"The Reality Gem!" Athena's eyes flashed with crackling white energy. "Where is it!?"

Raven gasped desperately for breath, pulling at the noose that continued to crush her windpipe. Suddenly, the energy field that linked them together faded into nothing, and Raven fell to the floor with a heavy thump. She lay on the floor gasping for breath while Athena stood silent, looking down at her.

"What's wrong? Sister Athena?" One of the other white-robed figures approached her from behind.

Athena whirled around suddenly, her eyes flashing with green ecto-energy. "Guess again!" She raised her hands, and a pair of ecto-blasts ripped into two of the robed figures that surrounded her.

"It's the ghost!" The rest of the sorcerers raised their hands and unleashed a powerful volley of energy, but Dani slipped up out of Athena's body, letting the blasts slam into the psycho at full force. Athena screamed as the force of the blasts sent her sailing back into the wall with a painful grunt.

"Nice shot. Now let's see you hit the person you're actually aiming for!" Dani grinned. The sorcerers raised their hands again, but Dani faded into invisibility, vanishing from sight.

Suddenly a hailstorm of Starbolts rained down on the already confused crowd, detonating on impact with the floor and sending people hurtling through the crowd. They whirled to orient on Starfire flying overhead, but Dani popped up from the floor just then and kicked one of the sorcerers in the face, knocking him back into one of the other sorcerers, where they both tumbled to the ground.

Cyborg and Robin leapt into the fray moments later from the main entrance, and chaos descended on Titans Tower. Energy flares and Starbolts emerged from the ground seemingly at random, while Robin and Cyborg barreled through the figures like a pair of steamrollers, making their way toward the wall where Raven lay unconscious on the floor. Dani continued to weave through the crowd, adding to the confusion by knocking heads and then vanishing before anyone could figure out where she was. After five minutes she had half the crowd convinced the other half was betraying them.

"We're almost there!" Robin whirled through the air, smashing another sorcerer's face into the ground before leaping toward the edge of the crowd, finally emerging toward Raven. He leapt the rest of the way over to her, but at the last second a veil of white energy engulfed her and pulled her across the floor away from him. Athena held out her hand like a wicked claw, which clamped around Raven's throat tightly, holding her up on her knees.

"SILENCE!" Athena's scream was punctuated by flashing white energy that struck the ceiling like lightning bolts. Everyone in the crowd, friend and foe, turned to look at her as she held Raven up by her throat, dangling as limp as a doll in her grasp. "My brethren, do not fight among yourselves. Victory will be ours in mere moments." Her gaze swept the crowd. "Dani Phantom. Reveal yourself now or I will kill this girl. Three... two... one..."

"Wait!" Dani floated up from the middle of the crowd, becoming visible again. She held her hands above her head. "I'm right here."

"Over there. You too, alien girl." Athena jerked her head toward the wall, where Robin and Cyborg had halted their advance. Dani and Starfire floated slowly over to join them, careful not to make any sudden moves.

"Leave her alone, Athena. She has nothing to do with this. I'm the one who betrayed you." Dani said firmly.

"I'm not interested in you, ghost child. All I want is the Gem of Form. Now tell me where it is!" Athena demanded.

"Only one person knows." Robin stepped forward. "And she could've hidden it anywhere in this dimension or another. So if you kill her, you'll never find it."

Athena's eyes narrowed in anger and her fist tightened around Raven's neck, but she didn't make the final move. "Then we'll take her until we do." She whirled away from them, still holding Raven.

"No!" Robin and the others rushed forward, but mystical energies exploded from the gathered sorcerers, ripping into their bodies like lightning strikes. They were thrown back against the window that overlooked the city, which was hidden by the fierce blizzard that continued to rage through the night. The window shattered from Cyborg's massive girth, and shards of it mixed in with the snow as the four of them plummeted toward the ground.

Dani plummeted through the freezing air, shaking her head to try to see where the others were, but she could barely even see the side of the tower. She halted her descent and spun through the air until she was upright, turning to look back up at the tower. A scream barely had time to erupt from her lips before Cyborg came right down on top of her, knocking her into the black embrace of unconsciousness.

* * *

"It's been a while since the last explosion." Star stared up the side of Titans Tower, holding her jacket tightly around her. They could barely see the dim lights twinkling from some of the lower windows, but the top of the tower was completely hidden from their view. "Do you think Dani and the others won?"

"I hope so. If she dies, I'm gonna kill her." Sam retorted. Jazz sneezed in agreement.

"You should take something for that, Jazz." Star pointed out.

"Ugh, it's the cold. I hate the cold. I always get si-ACHOO!" Jazz sneezed again, then sniffled and wiped her nose on the back of her glove. "Ugh..."

"Hey, quiet!" Sam grabbed their shoulders and dragged them down behind a bush near the entrance to Titans Tower when she saw a white-robed figure emerge, trailed close by over a dozen others. Sam's eyes went wide when she realized that something was being dragged by the one in the lead. Or rather, someone was being dragged across the snow like a limp doll.

"It's Raven." Star confirmed. "They got Raven."

"We can't let them take her." Jazz said urgently. "There's no telling what they'll do to her."

"How do we stop them?" Star asked.

Sam reached into her jacket pocket and withdrew the nondescript yellow gem, holding it in her palm. "We know what they want..." She closed her fist around it and stood up, emerging from the bush. Jazz and Star remained behind, watching from cover. "Hey! Psychopaths!" The figures all turned to look at her, gasping when Sam held up her hand, holding the gem between her thumb and forefinger. "Are you looking for this?"

"The Reality Gem!" The leader stepped forward, still clutching Raven around the throat. "Give it to me!"

"First give us the girl!" Sam shouted back over the roaring wind. "Then I'll toss you the gem!"

The leader of the cult raised the hand with Raven in it and let go of her. White light engulfed her body, and slowly it drifted closer to Sam. Jazz and Star rushed out from their cover to catch her, holding her between them before she could collapse to the snow once the energy faded. They moved back with her, moving behind Sam, who was still holding the gem in the air.

"Now keep your part of the bargain, child. And I will leave you in peace." The psychotic woman said in a cold tone.

Sam looked around quickly, searching for a way out. She didn't want to give something so powerful to a psychopath like this. But then, there was no guarantee it would work anyway. The woman's powers were great, but the Reality Gem was greater than a force of nature. Could she really control it?

Sam's eyes flashed at a sudden memory, then she smiled and closed her fist around it. "Catch!" She wound up and hurled the gem through the snow toward the psychopath.

"Sam! What are you doing!?" Jazz shouted, but it was too late.

The woman raised her hand toward it, and in a veil of light, the gem sped straight into her palm. "Yes! Just the first step on the road to shaping this universe to our wildest dreams..." She brought the gem down into her palm, then looked up at Sam and the others. "You have all been such trouble..." She raised the gem toward them, and it began to glow in her fingers. "Allow me to feel my new power."

"Sam..." Star muttered nervously, scooting closer behind Sam's back and clutching her jacket.

"Go ahead, psycho." Sam raised her arms to the sides. "Turn it on."

The woman in the white robe growled and the gem in her palm flashed. Suddenly one of the men behind her vanished, and was replaced by a tiny shattering squirrel, which shrieked and began darting around the snow-covered island. "What? What is this?" The woman exclaimed. "I didn't-" She didn't have time to finish before one of the other cultists transformed as well, into the form of a massive rhinoceros, which yelled in confusion while the people around it scrambled for safety.

"Some things the books don't tell you about these things, isn't there psycho?" Sam shouted over the wind. "The gem has the power, but the Gauntlet was the controller! Turn it on without the Reality Gauntlet, and it's as dangerous to you as it is to everyone else!"

"No!" The woman dropped the Reality Gem to the snow, but it continued to flash with yellow light. The snow around it melted into a river of water and flowed down toward the ocean while the panicked cries of the other cult members were replaced by the sounds of various animals, though a few simply ceased as they transformed into stones or plants. By now the cultists were trying to get as far away from the gem as possible, some had even begun to swim out into the ocean to escape the gem's wrath.

The woman whirled on them with an angry snarl on her face. "This isn't over! This isn't-" Suddenly, her voice faded into nothing as a small white dove appeared where she had stood moments before, its winds flapping furiously in the wind to stay airborne until it moved out of sight.

Sam moved away from her and darted across the snow, diving into it to cup both hands around the Reality Gem, closing her eyes and trying to stop it, as Danny had done the last time it went wild. She could feel it calming in her grasp, as its power faded into a steady pulse, then went away completely.

"Sam, you did it!" Star ran up behind her and tossed her arms around her in a tight hug. "You got rid of them for good!"

"Guess there are some things only experience can teach." Sam grinned and held up the Reality Gem.

"Sam!" Dani's voice shouted over the blizzard. Sam and Star looked over when they heard several sets of footsteps approaching through the blizzard. They came to a stop soon however.

"Whoa. Who robbed the zoo?" Cyborg looked around at the animals in confusion.

"More importantly, what happened to Raven and Athena?" Robin stepped forward.

Jazz's sneeze interrupted any answer that may have been forthcoming as she approached with Raven draped unconscious over her shoulders. "Can we talk inside over some mugs of hot cocoa?" She smiled. That sounded pretty good to everyone else.

* * *

"It's incredible that something like that exists." Robin nodded once they'd had a chance to sit down and discuss everything that had happened in the comfort of the downstairs command center. Raven lay on the couch nearby, resting but due to make a full recovery. "I've seen some strange things in this world, but gems that can reshape reality as we know it? That's far too powerful for anyone to possess."

"That's why Dani tried to destroy it." Jazz blew gently on the mug of cocoa she clutched in her gloved hands, blowing the steam out of the way so she could take a sip. "But I guess the gems don't destroy so easily."

"So then what do we do with this one?" Robin held up the Reality Gem in one palm. "We could keep it here at the tower, but what we do is pretty dangerous. I can't guarantee its safety..." He looked across the room at Dani who was sitting near the shattered window, staring out into the morning sun that assured them that the worst of the blizzard was over for now. When he looked back at Jazz, she was giving him a look of understanding.

"We'll take care of it." She set down her mug of cocoa and took the Reality Gem from him, cupping it in both hands. "You have my word. Nobody will ever get their hands on it again."

"I'm trusting you." Robin reached into his belt and pulled out a small device with a black and yellow T painted on it. "Just in case it ever falls into the wrong hands."

"We will. Thank you." Jazz took the communicator from him with a grateful smile.

* * *

Dani turned her head slightly when she heard a pair of thick steel-toed boots approach from the side. The footsteps faded as Sam plopped down on the floor beside him, looking out over the snow-covered city on the horizon. Sam scooted closer until their hips were pressed together, but said nothing. Dani turned to look at her, her beautiful face framed by the golden sun while the wind swept her black hair across her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Dani." Sam said softly. "I know how much you wanted to be a boy again."

"I should have realized it wouldn't work." Dani shook her head. "Even if I could make the Reality Gem do something, I couldn't control it. I should have known..." Sam slipped her arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, letting Dani's cheek rest against her shoulder while Sam's cheek rested on the top of her head. "The Gem of Form kept hope alive that I could turn back... and now..."

"It's okay, Dani..." Sam told her softly. "There might still be a way to turn you back in the future. There's no way to know for certain." She turned toward Dani, sliding a hand up to her chin to make their eyes meet. "We might find a way to make it work, or find something else that can do it... but that doesn't change the present. And nothing will ever change how I feel about you."

Dani smiled sadly. "I missed you so much, Sam..."

"I missed you too." Sam slipped her arms around Dani, and pulled her into a gentle kiss, closing her eyes in the golden light of the dawn. Dani closed hers as well, feeling for the first time since the change like her life was getting back on the right path after all...

* * *

Cyborg's sobs echoed through the living room upstairs, while Starfire hugged him from the side, stroking his bald head with one comforting hand. "I can't believe she's gone, Star... she was my best friend. She was the only one who really understood me!" Cyborg broke into another sobbing fit and collapsed to his knees. "Why couldn't it have been me? Why did it have to be her!?"

"It is okay, Cyborg." Starfire patted his head. "She would not wish for you to be sad over her."

"It was seventy-five inches, Star. Seventy-five inches!" Cyborg sobbed as his hands touched the top of the massive television that lay smashed under the Specter Speeder. "Gone, all gone... all gone..."

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

One week to Christmas, and things are finally returning to normal in Amity Park. Dani has finally come to truly accept her fate, Sam has grown comfortable with the nature of their relationship, Athena and her cult have been defeated forever, and the Gem of Form has been hidden from the world, never to be misused for evil purposes. It's a perfect time to rediscover the flame that brought Sam and Dani together in the first place... and perhaps grow even closer.

Episode 11: The Thing That Lasts Forever


	11. The Thing That Lasts Forever

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Titans Tower was overrun by Athena and her cult of sorcerers, but after a long struggle the power of the Gem of Form proved to be too much for Athena, and she was transformed into a mindless creature along with most of her cult. Sam and Dani discovered each other once again, and Jazz vowed that they would keep the gem safely away from those who would attempt to abuse its power, and might actually succeed. As a precaution, Robin left a Titans Communicator with Jazz in case the Reality Gem ever fell into the wrong hands.

Episode 11: The Thing That Lasts Forever

The sound of carolers could be heard patrolling the streets of Amity Park, singing songs of joy and beauty that only came into season once a year. Christmas was only a week away, and multicolored lights twinkled from every rooftop and doorstep while the pure white snow floated along on the gentle winter breeze. The ground was invisible under the coating of powder that kept coming down, except for those roads that were freshly paved to make travel easier.

Inside her large home, Dani stood in her bedroom looking herself over carefully in a body-length mirror she'd set up against the wall. She pursed her lips and looked down at her body, which was covered by a black tuxedo that did much to hide her more feminine features. If she weren't wearing makeup, she might almost be able to pass for her old boyish self. But that would only confuse people who didn't know that Dani and Danny were the same person. Besides, her voice would remain the same.

As she adjusted the red bow tie around her neck she heard a soft knock on her bedroom door. "It's open." She glanced at the door as it creaked open and Jazz poked her head inside. "Hey, Jazz."

"Hey Dani." Jazz slipped inside the bedroom and closed it behind her with her free hand. Hope was lying peacefully in one of her arms, trying to look around at the world as it passed by and yelling incoherently at anything that looked mildly interesting. Jazz stopped and looked Dani up and down for a moment, suppressing a chuckle.

"What?" Dani looked down at herself. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing." Jazz replied. "I just figured you'd wear a dress on your first 'official' date with Sam since the transformation. I know you like to look pretty."

Dani's face turned bright red. "SHUSSSHHHHH!" She hissed. "That is for me-time only."

"Ah, gotcha." Jazz smiled. "It's in my vault of secrets." Dani turned back to the mirror and Jazz walked up behind her, inspecting her more closely in the mirror. "Looking pretty sharp, there. That's not even a clip-on tie is it?"

"No, it's real." Dani replied. "That's why I started getting ready three hours ago. So I could get this darn thing straight. I'm still not sure why Sam insisted on dressing up all fancy tonight. She said something about a special occasion but Christmas isn't for another week." She blinked. "Wait, I didn't miss Hanukkah did I?"

"No, it's not Hanukkah yet." Jazz replied with a smile. "I'm sure she has her reasons."

Dani narrowed her eyes. "If you know something about this, you'd better tell me."

"I know nothing at all." Jazz replied with that singsong tone of hers that always meant she was hiding something.

Dani knew something was up, but she decided to let it slide. It didn't really matter why Sam wanted to have such a formal date after over a year of resisting such stuffy rituals, if Sam wanted to do it then Dani would go through with it.

"Honestly, I'm looking forward to tonight," Dani said. "Between having a being of pure evil unleashed on the world from inside my body, being trapped in the body of my clone, almost melting into ectoplasm, and fighting for one of the most powerful mystical objects on the planet, I'm really looking forward to getting back to my LIFE, you know?" Dani turned to look back at Jazz. "It's like the last couple of months have just passed me right by. And I know I don't have an infinite amount of time to waste."

"That's a very mature thing to realize Dani." Jazz smiled in understanding and reached out one hand. With one flick of her wrist she straightened out the red bow tie around Dani's neck. "Just remember that your time may not be infinite, but you are still young. There's no need to rush into anything you may not feel ready for. And honesty is always the best policy." She nodded sagely.

Dani narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the sudden advice, but decided not to pursue it. Instead she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Jazz in a gentle hug, careful to avoid squishing Hope between them. The baby gurgled and swung one tiny fist at Dani's ponytail until she pulled back.

"Thanks, Jazz." Dani smiled.

"Any time, sis." Jazz smiled back. "Now go enjoy yourself, Sam will be expecting you any minute."

Dani nodded. "Alright. I'll let you know how it went."

"I'm sure you will." Jazz said in that annoying singsong tone. Dani tried to pretend she didn't notice it as she made her way downstairs with her sister following close behind. They made their way to the front door, where Dani grabbed her thick jacket off of the nearby coat rack and slipped it on over her tuxedo, careful not to dislodge the collar or ruffle the sleeves.

Dani and Jazz both blinked in surprise when they heard the doorbell. "Did she say she was coming to get you?" Jazz asked.

"Um, no. I thought I was going to go get her." Dani shook her head. "I guess she got tired of waiting... I knew I should have worn the clip-on."

"Well, don't make her wait anymore. Go! Go!" Jazz put a hand on Dani's back and pushed her all the way up to the door. "And remember to be on your best behavior."

"Yes, mother." Dani smirked and opened the front door. She and Jazz both blinked in surprise when they saw a stretch limousine resting by the side of the curb in the snow, while the driver stood by the doorway.

At the sight of her, the driver swept his arm back toward the limo with a grand flourish of his long coat. "Your ride awaits, Miss Fenton."

Dani stared at the driver for a moment, then turned back to Jazz. "I'm scared."

"Go on, it looks like you're in for a Heck of a night." Jazz pushed Dani out the front door with a grin. "I'll be waiting up for you." She waved and closed the door before Dani could complain.

Dani looked up at the driver, who was watching her with a cool, patient gaze. "Um... Yo." Dani waved politely.

"Hello. Miss Manson is waiting." The driver gestured to the limo again.

Dani obediently made her way down the sidewalk to the door near the back tires, where the driver hurried around to open the door for her. "Thanks." Dani smiled gratefully up at the man before crawling up onto the seat and slipping inside. The interior was big and hollow, with two seats situated on either side of what could almost be a small living room if it was tall enough to stand up in. The seat was plush enough to sink into, and there was a small refrigerator sticking out of the wall nearby.

"Hey, Dani." Sam's voice came from the seat opposite her own. Dani squinted into the darkness, and could see Sam's shadowy outline against the moonlight that filtered in through the front windshield. "Come over here. I have Snickers."

"Mmmm. Snickers." Dani climbed off of her seat and quickly darted to the front seat to sit beside Sam before the car's engine started up and they began to move down the street. Dani took Sam's Snickers with a grateful smile. "Thanks. My favorite."

"I know." Sam chuckled.

Dani took a bite of her Snickers bar, turning to look out the dark tinted window to watch the snowfall around the well-heated limousine. After a few moments, she turned to look back at Sam, though she couldn't see her very well in the darkness. "It's so weird seeing you like this... I mean, not that I didn't know you had money, but I've never known you to BE rich... y'know?"

"Yeah, I know." Sam replied softly.

"So what's up? What's the occasion?" Dani asked.

"Let's just enjoy the evening for now." Sam replied. "I mean, we'll see if you enjoy it." Sam lapsed into silence. Dani questioned her further a few more times, but didn't get any direct answers, so she let the topic die and decided to change the subject.

"Why is it so dark in here?" Dani asked. "This thing has a toaster on the armrest, and it doesn't have any lights?"

"It does, I just like the dark." Sam replied. "But if you insist..." Dani heard a rustling sound and the click of a small remote, and suddenly the interior of the well-furnished limousine was lit up with a well lit, but still dim and atmospheric light set on the roof in the center of the room-sized vehicle.

The splendor of the limousine was completely forgotten however when she glanced at Sam sitting right beside her. She was wearing a deep velvet dress with black hem of silk that glittered with shining diamonds hewn straight into the fabric. The bottom swept down to her feet, where Dani saw she'd even abandoned her boots in favor of a pair of dainty shoes that left her ankles bare. The top of the dress puffed out from her shoulders to each side with velvet cloth that tightened around her biceps and went straight down her arms into a pair of tight gloves, and her torso was covered from her neck down by black lace in a spider-web pattern, which became solid just at the top of her breasts. Her face was so heavily covered in makeup that she looked like a beautiful porcelain doll, an image completed by the three jewels that hung from each earring low enough to brush against her shoulders whenever she turned her head.

Sam blushed and looked away when she saw Dani staring, brushing a bit of hair out of her eyes.

"W... w... w... w..." Dani stuttered amazement before finally she was able to say what she really felt. "Wow."

Sam's blush only deepened, though it was mostly hidden behind her thick makeup. "Too much?"

"N... no..." Dani shook her head, still staring at her face. "You look absolutely stunning. I've just never seen you like this."

"Not many people have. Well, not many people outside of my parents' social circles," Sam replied.

"So why do it now?" Dani was only getting more confused by all of this by the second. "If you're not comfortable then why do it? You don't have to put on a show for me. You know that."

"I know..." Sam didn't look at him, instead gazing out the window at the snow falling around them. In another few moments she sighed in relief as the car began to turn. "It looks like we're here. Come on, I want you to try my favorite restaurant."

"Okay." Dani nodded, unsatisfied with the silence but unwilling to risk saying something really stupid. So Sam grabbed her thick winter jacket that hung down to her ankles and slipped it on as the door slid open on the side of the limo, with the driver standing aside and waiting for them to get out.

The restaurant was massive, and the smells filtering out of the warmly lit interior were as enticing as any Dani had smelled before. Which was shocking considering that the place was called 'The Garden's Delight', which Dani knew to be a strictly vegetarian place. The place was so expensive there was a red carpet on the ground leading up to its entrance, though the falling snow currently hid it from view.

Sam slid closer and slipped her arm through Dani's, hooking them together with a smile. Dani smiled back, still a bit confused by all of this fancy stuff. She didn't have to think to follow Sam into the restaurant though, where they handed their jackets over to a man who seemed to be there just to take them and approached the man behind a counter.

"Ah, Miss Manson and guest." The man clapped his hands. "How delightful to see you this evening."

"Good evening Paul." Sam smiled. "The usual table please."

"Of course, right this way." The man named Paul turned to lead them to a table in the back, a nice secluded spot near the corner, where a fireplace was burning nearby, but not close enough to be uncomfortably warm. The man held out a menu to each of them, then bowed and took his leave.

"So you come here a lot?" Dani asked.

"Yeah, sort of..." Sam trailed off nervously.

"Sam, is something bothering you?" Dani asked worriedly. "If there's something wrong, you can tell me. Seriously."

"Dani..." Sam sighed. "You know how sometimes there are more sides to people than they let the world see. Like Star hiding part of herself to be with Paulina. Or me, hiding my money..."

"But your money doesn't define you, you define you. Or at least, that's the lesson you've beaten into my head." Dani smiled humorously.

Sam looked at her seriously. "That's just it though. There's a side to me you never saw... I LIKE being spoiled and pampered. It's one of my guilty pleasures, and I never wanted anyone to know about it. It's embarrassing, but in some ways, I really am the spoiled rich brat everyone would think I am if they knew I was rich."

Dani looked around at the restaurant, then back at Sam, whose face was bright red as she swirled the water around the glass the waiter had just placed in front of her. "But I don't get it... why would you think I'd see you any differently if I knew about this? So you like to eat out at fancy restaurants sometimes, big deal."

"It's not just this, Dani." Sam replied. "I have a 3,000 dollar laptop in my room, and a stereo system that has enough power to literally bring a house down." She looked away from Dani. "When you get right down to it, I'm as bad as Paulina. A spoiled brat who gets everything her way and has everything she could ever want. Does anyone actually like someone like that?"

"Hey, you're nothing like Paulina." Dani retorted. "Because Paulina only cared about herself. You care about others, and you have things you care about. Like the wilderness, and animals, and equal rights. Those are the things that define you, Sam. And you've always been so sure of yourself before. Why are you so insecure now?"

"Because... because I..." Sam shook her head. "I just want you to know me, everything I am and everything I do because... because if..." She cleared her throat and looked up when the waiter arrived to take their order.

Sam said nothing more on the topic for the rest of their meal, instead turning the conversation to the events of the last few weeks, which mostly included going to school and saying goodbye to Star at the airport when she left to spend Christmas with her family. When they ran out of topics there the conversation turned to upcoming movies they wanted to see and video games they wanted to play. It was a comfortable, lighthearted time for them. But in Dani's heart it might as well have been total silence. Why wouldn't Sam say what was bothering her?

When they finished their meal they stood to get their jackets from the man who'd taken them earlier, and emerged from the restaurant into the snow-covered street outside. The full moon lit up the snow with a brilliant shine that almost made it seem to glow, while each individual snowflake glittered on its descent to the ground. Dani reached out her hand to take Sam's, and Sam gave her a soft smile as the limousine pulled up in front of the curb to get them.

They sat in the dark in the limousine, since Sam didn't turn the lights back on. They said nothing as the limo moved down the street toward Dani's house. The silence was deafening and disturbing. She would've done anything to break it, but she didn't know how. If Sam didn't want to talk, she didn't want to pry into her business. But why wouldn't Sam talk? She was always so sure of herself. And she was always so honest before.

Dani looked back at Sam, whose features were hidden in shadows too deep to see what she was thinking. She just stared at her face for a moment, then reached out and took Sam's hand. Sam looked over at her, the reflected moonlight sparkling across her cheeks and eyes, illuminating a puzzled gaze. Suddenly Dani's body flashed with ectoplasmic energy and Dani Phantom bolted straight up through the roof of the limousine, carrying Sam up with her.

"Gah! Dani! What are you doing!?" Sam screamed in shock.

"Do you trust me?" Dani called back down to her, still ascending into the sky.

"What? Yes, of course, but- AAAAHHHH!" Sam screamed when Dani suddenly whirled, throwing Sam straight up into the air. Sam's scream echoed through the night until Dani came right up under her, grabbing her hands and spinning through the air with her. "Dani!" Sam shouted, panting heavily. Dani slowed her spin and gave Sam a broad grin. In a moment Sam's look of terror faded into a soft laugh that grew until their laughter echoed through the calm night sky.

"What is this?" Sam laughed.

"You showed me a new side of you tonight. Thought I'd show you a new side of me." Dani whirled again, throwing Sam up into the air in a spin. Prepared this time, Sam tucked her arms into her body like a dancer, and grabbed hold of Dani's hands when she came back down, whirling to send them both into a spin, revolving around each other as they floated across the night sky.

The snow shined in the light of the full moon, glittering like a series of falling stars around their bodies as they danced across the night sky, with nothing but a gentle breeze that flowed through their hair and clothing to remind them that anything existed but each other. Their eyes locked on one another, their hands clutched out to their sides, stretched out to their full distance while they spun and moved around each other in a graceful rhythm to music that only existed in their minds. And yet they moved in perfect rhythm with one another, united in their dance as they were in all things.

As with all things, the dance had to end at last and they found themselves sitting on a bench that sat in the park in the middle of the city, holding each other close and staring up into the night sky.

"That was the most wonderful thing I've ever experienced." Sam sighed in contentment. "You can do things like that all the time... you could have any girl, one who isn't as spoiled or needy as me. Why would you want me?"

"Sam, I don't care if you're used to a fancy lifestyle." Dani reached a hand out and gently touched Sam's cheek, pulling her face up until they were face to face. "You're entitled to like whatever you want. If I had the kind of money you do, I'd probably do the same things. I doubt anyone could honestly say they wouldn't."

"Really?" Sam asked.

"Of course." Dani smiled. "It doesn't matter how you treat yourself, what matters is how you treat others. You're a kind, considerate, compassionate, and downright passionate person who always fights for the things she believes in. All of that is worth so much more than all the money in the world." Dani's eyes remained steady and serious as she stared deep into Sam's, running a hand over her cheek. "I love you, Sam. I love everything you are." She smiled. "Pampered lifestyle and all."

"Dani." Sam smiled, the moon sparkling off of the tears that slid down her cheeks. "I'm so happy to hear you say that. I... I've wanted to ask you something all night. I wasn't sure if I should, but now I am sure." Sam stood up from the bench, reaching out to take one of Dani's hands between hers.

"Ask me?" Dani watched her curiously. Slowly Sam dropped down to one knee, which crunched in the snow through her thick winter jacket, still holding Dani's hand between both of hers. "Ask... ask me what?" Dani's heart raced.

"Dani, over the last year, so much has happened. We've seen so many things, been through so much, and shared so many experiences. Even since the day we met there were moments that took my breath away, and made me wonder if I could ever be with anyone else. And having you disappear from my life completely... it made me realize that I couldn't. My money can run out, my friends can leave, and my family can turn on me... but if you've thought me anything, it's that there's one thing that can last forever."

"Dani Fenton..." Sam reached down into her luxurious purse and pulled out a small black box, decorated with red trim around the edges. Dani's heart leapt into her throat at the sight of it, and her breath didn't return when Sam held it up in the moonlight and opened it up to reveal a gold ring, ornately carved on the outside with 'Sam and Danny' etched around the length of the band. "Will you marry me?"

Dani raised her hands to her lips, staring down at the sparkling gold ring. A soft squeak was all that could slip through her tightly shut throat for several seconds until she was finally able to calm herself enough to speak. "Yes... yes yes!" Dani threw herself off of the bench, wrapping her arms around Sam and hugging her tightly. "Of course I will! Why even bother asking!?"

Sam grinned and pushed her back, lifting Dani's hand to slide the ring slowly onto her finger. Dani could barely stop shivering, and had no hope of losing the grin that threatened to split her face in half. When the ring was firmly on her finger she held it up to examine it in the bright moonlight, letting out a scream of joy that she could contain no longer.

Sam chuckled and stood up with a broad smile on her face, brushing some snow off of her dress and watching Dani scream into the night sky. Suddenly Dani leapt off of the ground and tackled Sam back to the snow with a thick crunch, clutching her tightly in her arms.

"I can't believe it. It's going to happen isn't it!?" Dani exclaimed, resting her cheek against Sam's chest. "We're getting married!"

"Yeah." Sam laughed and grinned, wrapping her arms tightly around Dani. "Yeah, it is."

They remained that way for longer than they could remember. Thankfully Sam's thick, expensive coat was up to the task of keeping her warm and dry in the snow. After a while the heat of the moment began to die down, but they didn't move to go anywhere. It was peaceful, lying in the gentle snow in each others' arms. Dani's mind finally began to clear enough to think things through. She never even began to regret saying yes, but there were a few things that continued to bother her.

"I thought of something..." Dani looked up at Sam's face, resting her chin on the peak of her chest. "We're 15... and both girls... CAN we get married?"

"Well, our age doesn't matter if we have parents' permission." Sam replied. "And I cleared it with both of our families last week."

"Your mom actually agreed to let you marry another girl?" Dani's eyes went wide. "But she's so conservative. How did you do that?"

"Let's just say I made you look like a pretty attractive alternative..." Sam smiled slyly.

LAST WEEK

"Gah! Okay, you can marry your girlfriend! Just get him out of here!" Sam's mother jabbed a finger at a boy standing in the kitchen with her, with several rings sticking out of his nose, ears, cheeks, and nipples. Sam grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

PRESENT

"And what about the fact that we're both girls?" Dani asked.

"I had Jazz look into that. A while back the government passed a law meant to curb the transgender phenomena, that said that the sex listed on a person's birth certificate will always be their legal sex, no matter what changes their body goes through. Which means..."

"I'm still legally a boy." Dani grinned.

"Right. Which means nobody can stop us." Sam gripped Dani's back tighter and pulled her up into a tender kiss on the lips. "And nobody will ever get between us."

Dani smiled and sniggled against her, resting her cheek on her chest. "So, all of our parents and Jazz all knew about this beforehand. Is there anyone who didn't know we were getting married before I did?"

"I haven't told Star yet." Sam smirked.

"Great. I get to do that." Dani smiled. At last, she pushed herself off of Sam, sitting up on her knees. "As much as I love freezing my butt off in the snow with you, I think maybe it's time we got home. Come on, I'll fly you." Dani climbed to her feet and held out one hand to Sam.

"Sounds good." Sam smiled and took his hand, letting Dani lift her easily off the ground as they rose into the deep midnight sky together.

* * *

Dani spun and whirled with the wind as she flew through the night after dropping Sam off at her house, her arms spread wide to catch every gust of wind and every snowflake that drifted in her direction. She couldn't stop smiling any more than she could stop dancing through the air. It felt like her heart was filled with helium, soaring higher and higher the more she thought about the night's events.

"Can you feel the love tonight..." She sung softly to herself, continuing the song under her breath on a soft hum as she touched down on her doorstep and reverted back to her normal human form. She pushed the door open and slipped inside by twirling on her heel, then kicking it closed with her free foot.

"Should I take that to mean the night went well?" Jazz asked form the couch in the living room, where she was reading a book with Hope asleep in her crib nearby.

Dani looked over at her, then with a broad grin raised her left hand to display the gold engagement ring on her finger. "I think it was wonderful."

Jazz closed her book calmly, resting her hands on it in a dignified manner. "You know this won't make anything easy. There is no happily ever after, Dani. Marriage is difficult. There will be fights, there will be arguments, and you may get absolutely sick of each other. If you're not careful, you can even become bitter enemies." She set the book on the couch beside her and stood up from the couch. "Are you sure you're ready for it?"

"Yeah." Dani nodded without hesitation. "I am."

"Why?"

"Because I love her. What other reason can there be?" Dani replied.

Jazz nodded and walked toward her, finally breaking into a broad smile and opening her arms wide to engulf Dani in a tight hug. "Then congratulations, Dani. I hope you're both truly happy."

"Thanks, Jazz." Dani closed her eyes and returned the hug, clutching her sister close. "For everything." She smiled broadly, and wasn't able to stop smiling for hours to come.

* * *

The morning sun shone through the window late in the morning, as the cold winter nights grew longer and longer. Thankfully it was a weekend, so Dani didn't have to rush out of bed, and could instead snuggle deeper into her blankets to ward off the chill in the air. One hand rose to rub her eyes, helping them focus so she could glance at the clock that sat on the nightstand beside a picture of Sam.

Dani sat up in her light blue pajamas, letting the blankets fall off of her body to the bed as she looked around. It took her a few moments to remember what had happened. It felt like a dream... it probably was, she knew. There was no way that kind of thing could happen in real life. Life wasn't that perfect. It wasn't that wonderful.

Then she looked down at her left hand, and saw a gold band shining in the orange light of dawn. A smile lit up her features. It wasn't a dream.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

It's Christmas Eve and there are wedding plans to make! But this most joyous time is interrupted when news of Hope's existence is leaked to the media. The news is buzzing across the globe, and within hours everyone in the world seems to know... including Paulina and Dark Danny. While Sam and Dani encounter their first speed bump on the road to marriage and Jazz deals with the repercussions of having a famous baby, Dark Danny comes up with a plan to revive his full strength through an unspeakable act. The sacrifice of an innocent life.

Episode 12: For Love


	12. For Love

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

After an evening of nervousness and uncertainty, Sam decides to pop the question and Sam and Dani become engaged to be married. Despite Jazz's warnings, the engagement sticks and wedding preparations begin...

Episode 12: For Love

"How is she, doctor?" Jazz asked as she stood in the small examination room toward the back of the hospital. She stood over the bed where Hope lay giggling and looking around at the plain white room as if it was the most amazing thing in the world. Doctor Schwartz looked up from the baby and pulled his stethoscope away from her chest, looking down at a clipboard held in his left hand.

"Well, I'm happy to report that we've found no problems. She's as healthy as she can be." Doctor Schwartz gave her a warm smile. "It does sort of disturb me though, not having a family history."

"What do you mean?" Jazz asked.

"Well, some problems can be passed on genetically, sort of like family traits. Bone structure, for instance. Diseases can do this as well, so if we knew who her father was we would know what genetic traits to look for that could cause problems." The doctor told her seriously. "As it is, I don't know what to watch out for."

"I see your point." Jazz said softly.

The doctor leaned closer to her. "Do you know who her father is, Jasmine?" He asked her. "I swear it will be kept in the strictest confidence."

Jazz looked past him at her baby, lying happily on the table without a care in the world. The thought of something being wrong with her scared Jazz to death, especially something wrong that she didn't know about. So she took a deep breath and met the doctor's gaze. "Her biological father was Vladimir Masters."

"Vlad Masters?" The doctor looked astonished. "The Vlad Masters?"

"Yes. But can we please, please keep this between us?" Jazz pleaded. "I don't want to have to deal with the repercussions."

"Of course, Miss Fenton." Doctor Schwartz looked down at his clipboard and wrote something down hastily. "I'll look through Vlad's family history and see if there's any record of a biological problem that we should be concerned about. I'll probably have you bring Hope back for another checkup in a few weeks, but aside from all that, I think things are looking good." He smiled.

"Thank you, doctor." Jazz smiled back and approached the table to lift Hope up to her shoulder.

"My pleasure, Jasmine." Doctor Schwartz told her. "Take care now."

They bid each other farewell and Jazz left the hospital examination room, carrying her daughter with her. She didn't like the idea of anyone knowing that Vlad was the father, but surely she could trust the doctor to keep his mouth shut. Right?

* * *

Christmas bells were ringing and carolers were singing while the hearts of two young lovers continued to soar a week after their engagement. The festive and merry season only made the world seem brighter, and for the first time Dani was able to see Sam looking so genuinely happy that the smile never left her lips even for an instant. Neither the bitter cold wind nor her mother's continued apprehension over the wedding could dull her spirits.

"Hey, Dani?" Sam looked up from a small notebook she was jotting down notes in as they sat together in Dani's living room. "Your parents aren't going to demand a traditional Christian wedding, are they?"

"My parents? Traditional?" Dani blinked. "You have MET them, right?"

Sam laughed. "Yeah, point taken." She jotted something down in her notebook. "My mom really has her heart set on a traditional Jewish wedding. I normally wouldn't care what she thinks, but this is really important to her and she's already nervous enough as it is."

"That sounds fine to me." Dani shrugged.

"Do you even care?" Sam demanded. "This is our wedding, we need to make sure we're satisfied with it. We only get one, after all."

"Hopefully." Dani shrugged again. When Sam didn't respond Dani slowly lifted her eyes from her comic book to see Sam giving her the glare of impending doom. "I'm going to go think about what I just said and figure out where I went wrong." Dani closed her comic book and stood up.

"You do that." Sam glared after her.

Dani quickly vanished into the back of the house, leaving Sam alone in the living room. Sam shook her head and tried to get back to work, but she found she couldn't concentrate. So she grabbed the nearby remote and turned on the TV. It was far smaller than the ones she had at her house, but it would do to take her mind off of all the planning she'd been doing for the last week. How come the happiest days of one's life always took the most work?

She left the TV on for the noise and sat back on the couch with her bridal magazine, looking for suitable decorations and a dress for herself. Dani had already said she wanted to wear a tux to the wedding, which suited Sam just fine. It was rather comforting that Dani continued to do things in her masculine way, just with a touch of femininity. Though she could do without the frequent crying fits.

"And the long-running feud over the estate of late multi-billionaire Vladimir Masters continues to heat up as his remaining family members all vie for control of his estate, which is estimated to be worth more than five hundred billion dollars." The news anchor droned on in the background while Sam circled things in her magazine, making mental notes to order them for the wedding. "Earlier this afternoon Eugene Masters issued a statement that he was less than 24 hours away from gaining total control over the estate. It's not known what he means to do, but analysts speculate that it the legal trend continue that, as the oldest surviving member of the Masters family, he may be correct. The second Masters sibling, Corrine Masters, is expected to make an announcement this evening."

"Greedy harpies." Sam shook her head, turning back to her magazine. The TV droned on for a while and she managed to tune it out, but her attention snapped back to the television when she heard something strange.

"I repeat, this is just a preliminary report, but word along the wire is that an illegitimate daughter of Vlad Masters may have been found. If this proves to be true, of course, it could change the scope of the entire debate. The name of the child hasn't yet been released, but we'll keep reporting on this story as it unfolds." The anchorman turned to a man sitting beside him to continue the report.

"What the heck...?" Sam shook her head. "No, no way..." Her head jerked toward the door when the lock clicked open and Jazz walked inside with Hope cradled in one arm. Her mother Maddie walked in right behind her, closing the front door firmly behind them.

"Hello Sam." Maddie smiled as they walked into the living room.

"Hey Jazz. Hey mom." Sam smiled.

Maddie grinned broadly. "Oh, you don't have to call me that, Sam. I'm perfectly happy with Maddie."

"Oh, okay... um... mom." Sam smiled, a bit uncomfortable with calling Dani's mom by her first name.

"Oh, what's going on now?" Maddie watched the TV curiously.

"Gah! Nothing!" Sam grabbed the remote and tried to turn off the TV, but Maddie was standing between herself and the TV, blocking the remote from working while the news reporter continued to talk about the news of the day.

"Well, if this report turned out to be true, naturally the estate of Vlad Masters would go to this child. Of course, if it turns out that the child is under 18, the estate would then be transferred to the child's parent." One of the voices droned on. "It's a really fascinating case in that a feud this long and bitter has never before had a bombshell like this dropped on it so late in the game."

"Vlad had a daughter? And they only just now found out?" Maddie laughed. "Wow, I never knew. The world is a strange place sometimes, isn't it?"

"Um... y... yeah." Jazz muttered in confusion, exchanging a sharp glance with Sam. Maddie shrugged and turned to make her way into the kitchen, heading through it and down into the basement to find her husband. When she was gone, Jazz walked to the couch and sat down beside Sam, holding Hope tightly in her arms.

"Jazz..." Sam trailed off worriedly.

"I only told the doctor. That was it. The doctor." Jazz gulped, her face pale. "There's no way he would've told anyone. Someone else must have heard somehow."

"Maybe he has another daughter out there somewhere. He did seem like kind of a pervert." Sam suggested.

"Maybe." Jazz watched the TV nervously as the anchorman looked at the screen again. "But somehow, I don't think so. I should probably have a talk with mom and dad before they hear the truth from anyone else. Do you think..."

"I'll be right there." Sam stood up from the couch and helped Jazz climb to her feet. This was all they needed right when things were starting to look up for once. If they moved fast and got lucky, maybe they could curb this before it got out of hand. But first, they needed Jazz's parents to be on the same page...

* * *

"Due to factors that cannot be discussed at this time, the identity of the child's mother has not been disclosed to the public. But it has been confirmed now by multiple sources that the child is indeed the child of Vladimir Masters, the multi-billionaire entrepreneur who took the business world by storm until his mysterious death in a secluded cavern in northern Florida almost a year ago." The news anchor said with a firm, authoritative voice.

"They call this news?" Paulina leaned back on her seat in the run-down old shed she'd found herself holed up in since leaving FentonWorks empty-handed. "So some old geezer had a kid, whoopdee doo."

Wait. The calm voice inside of her mind spoke through mere thoughts. The heir of Vlad Plasmeus lives.

"The heir of who?" Paulina asked in confusion.

She could feel Danny Phantom growing more excited, and his excitement began to cloud her own emotions, making her heart race. Vlad Plasmeus' child. I believed Jasmine would have terminated the pregnancy once she regained her mind... it appears I misjudged her. This is fortunate.

"Jasmine? Jasmine Fenton?" Paulina blinked in surprise. "You think her kid was the fogey's? Ewe! That's just gross!"

You're missing the bigger picture, Paulina. Danny Phantom's voice whispered into her mind. Vlad Plasmeus' child will have a unique ecto-signature, but one that is ill-defined and adaptable. In their infancy is when the ghost 'race' defined who they were. A child so young would have powers that are infinitely adaptable, and can be taken for myself. This child is the key to making me whole again!

"Do you think so!?" Paulina gasped in excitement. "That means we can be together! You and me. My dream can come true!"

Yes, Paulina. All of our dreams will come to pass once you use my powers to take that child.

"Take the child?" Paulina blinked. "W... wait, you want me to kidnap Jazz's baby?"

You swore you would do anything for me, Paulina.

"I know, and I meant it, but... kidnapping a newborn baby? Isn't there any other way?"

There isn't. Danny Phantom's voice grew stronger, with a tinge of impatience flooding into her mind. The child is the key to returning me to full strength. I must have it before it grows too much to be useful.

"But it's just a baby." Paulina complained. A vicious roar erupted through her mind suddenly as dark green energy flooded through her body. She let out a shriek of pain as her body began to thrash against the energy, slamming her arms and legs into the floor and the small coffee table that sat between herself and the television. As quickly as it began the energy subsided, leaving her lying on the floor, gasping for air as her burning lungs began working again.

Don't make me hurt you, Paulina. Danny Phantom's voice was soft and almost loving as it whispered in her mind. You know I hate to hurt you, however necessary it becomes. But you must find me that child. Soon. My existence depends on you, and I know I can count on you, Paulina.

Paulina pushed herself up to a sitting position on the floor, panting against the pain with her head bowed. "Y... yes, my love. I'll do anything for you."

* * *

"What!?" Jack's roar of anger and shock echoed through the entire FentonWork's building as he rose to his feet in the cold basement laboratory where he and his wife had been working. He didn't often get angry, but when he did, whatever drew his ire was well advised to run as fast as it could. "Vlad was messing around with my daughter!? Where is he!? I'll KILL him!"

"He's already dead, Jack." Maddie reminded him calmly.

Jack whipped out a massive ecto-cannon. "Then show me his ghost and I'll kill that too!"

"Dad, please, calm down!" Jazz rushed forward and put her free hand on the muzzle of the cannon to lower it to the floor. Her other arm was busy holding Hope against her chest. "Just take deep breaths and try to relax."

"Relax?" Maddie stood up as well. "Jasmine, how... how could something like that happen? I don't understand."

"It's a very long story, mom." Jazz replied. "Maybe I'll tell you the whole thing eventually, but for now I just wanted you to hear the truth from me before you heard it anywhere else."

"Just tell me Jazz. Why?" Maddie pushed her back gently by her shoulders, looking into her eyes.

"It..." Jazz shook her head and looked away. "I never wanted to do it..."

"What..." Maddie trailed off, her eyes going wide. "Jazz..."

"We'll go over that later." Jazz said firmly. "But right now I just need your support."

"Of course, sweetie." Maddie wrapped her arms around her tightly. "You've always had it."

"Kill Vlaaaaaad!" Jack charged for the door, holding his ecto-gun up in front of him. Sam yelped and leapt out of the way before he could run her over her on his way up the stairs.

Sam rubbed her head and looked at the other two girls. "He'll run out of energy before he hurts someone, right?" The sound of an ecto-cannon blasting through the walls answered her question.

"Oh dear... Jack!" Maddie turned and rushed up the stairs after him.

Sam brushed herself off and climbed to her feet, approaching Jazz. "Well, it's good that everything's out in the open now."

"Yeah, I guess." Jazz hugged herself. "I just wish everyone didn't have to know. I'd rather just forget that Vlad Masters ever existed."

"But hey, at least this way you're in line to inherit the Masters fortune. You'll make me look like a pauper." Sam smiled.

Jazz shook her head and stuck out her tongue. "Ugh, I'm not taking Vlad's money. He got it all through lies, trickery and murder. Let his family keep fighting over it."

"Are you serious?" Sam's eyes went wide. "It's hundreds of billions of dollars and you'll just throw it to the wolves?"

Jazz nodded firmly. "I don't need blood money."

Sam stared at her in awe for a moment, then smiled in admiration. "You really are something special."

"Not really." Jazz blushed and looked away. "I just can't wait for the media buzz to die down. I hope it doesn't take long. At least nobody knows that I'm the mother since I'm underage." Jazz turned to follow her parents up to the first floor, but she stopped when she saw people banging on the windows of their house in the living room. "What the... I thought they weren't releasing my name!"

"You know, sometimes it sucks living in the information age." Sam lamented. The pounding on the front window grew louder once the reporters spotted them standing in the kitchen. Jazz's parents were in the living room in front of the windows trying to get them to go away, but they only pounded harder and shouted louder when they spotted Jazz holding Hope in her arms. Their cameras flashed with such speed it was like being caught in a strobe light. "Come on, let's get upstairs." Sam took her wrist and rushed toward the stairs.

Halfway upstairs they ran into Dani. "Hey, have you guys noticed the angry mob forming outside? I haven't seen one like this since dad knocked out the power grid with his ghost experiments."

"We'll talk about it in my room," Jazz replied.

Soon Jazz, Sam, and Dani were sitting on Jazz's bed, occasionally stealing glances out the front window where the crowd of reporters had nearly doubled in size over the last hour. The chatter and banging had died down, but they could still see camera flashes coming in through the window.

"Wow, those reporters don't give up do they?" Dani peeked out the window.

"Those aren't reporters. Those are paparazzi." Sam growled in hatred.

"I take it you have some experience with them," Jazz noted.

Sam nodded. "Why do you think my parents decided to move to a small town in the middle of nowhere? Those jerks ruined my childhood. My first steps..."

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO

"Here Sam. Come to momma." Sam's mother grinned and gestured for the tiny baby, who was watching her feet in concentration as she slowly lifted one foot, then the other.

"She's walking!" A man screamed from the window before a blinding flash lit up the living room. Blinded, young Sam fell back and slammed her head on the floor, then began to scream.

PRESENT DAY

"My first day of school..."

EIGHT YEARS AGO

Sam approached the small school building nervously, clutching her mother's hand tightly. A woman emerged with a small boy standing beside her, giving her a gentle, comforting smile.

"Um... hello." Sam told the boy with a nervous smile.

"Hey." The boy smiled back with a soft blush on his cheeks, putting his hands behind his back. "I'm Mike."

"She's making friends!" A man screamed from a nearby bush before a blinding flash lit up the living room. Blinded, young Sam fell back and slammed her head on the ground, then began to scream.

PRESENT DAY

"My first kiss..."

THREE YEARS AGO

They sat on a log together by a gently babbling brook, their hands clasped between them as they looked nervously into each others' eyes. There was a blush on their cheeks, but they didn't look away. They leaned slowly closer, their lips puckering in advance as they came together.

"She's kissing!" A voice shouted from a nearby tree branch as a man raised a camera, but before he could snap a photo a thick steel-toes boot slammed into his face, knocking him out of the tree and to the ground with a thud.

PRESENT DAY

"After we lost the lawsuit, my parents decided to get away from the big cities."

"Um... wow." Jazz chuckled nervously. "No wonder you hate the mainstream media."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Dani moved between Jazz and Sam, giving Sam a frightened look. "You had another boyfriend? I thought I was your first one!"

Sam blinked. "What? I never said that."

"I thought it was implied. We were each others' firsts."

"You were my first for lots of things, trust me. Just not my first boyfriend." Sam frowned. "What's the big deal? You had a crush on Paulina for years before you and I got together. Probably before we even met."

"Yeah, a crush, but she was never my girlfriend. And you knew about her. Why didn't you ever tell me about this guy?" Dani demanded.

"I didn't think it was very important. He's my best friend, and we decided to try dating but it didn't work out. So we went back to being friends." Sam stood up. "Now is this interrogation over? Because I really don't need to sit here and have you give me that suspicious glare."

"He IS your best friend? You still talk to him, don't you!?" Dani accused.

Sam's voice rose in irritation. "We write each other, yes! We met in preschool Danny; he's been my friend since I could remember! Like you and Tucker were!"

"You leave Tucker out of this!" Danny shouted back. "Tucker wasn't a girl!"

"This is so stupid! Just because I have a best friend who's a boy doesn't make him a threat to you! If I had feelings for him I would have asked HIM to marry me! But I asked YOU!"

"Well he's not here, is he?"

"Oh you did not just go there." Sam glared at Dani darkly. "Do you think I'm just playing games with you? Do you think everything we've experienced and felt is just a game!?"

"Time out!" Jazz roared as she swept in between them, pushing Dani back with her free hand. "Dani, that way. Sam, that way." Jazz pointed her free hand toward different corners of the room. When they opened their mouths to complain she roared again, "MOVE!" Sam and Dani glared at each other one last time, but kept silent as they turned to head toward opposite ends of the room.

Jazz's scream startled Hope, who began to cry into her shoulder. "Ssshhhh, I'm sorry sweetie. It's okay." Jazz patted her back tenderly and sighed to herself. "Of all the lousy times for the marital squabbles to start." She shook her head and walked back to her window to peer cautiously out at the crowd of paparazzi still circling the building. The line of people was so thick that they spilled over into the street, causing traffic to back up as far as she could see.

Jazz looked through the crowd, until her eyes suddenly went wide. A girl was standing at the back of the crowd, wearing a thick purple jacket and a pair of blue jeans over snowshoes. Her long black hair was flowing across her shoulder in the cold wind, fluttering over her glowing blood red eyes, which stared directly at her.

"P... Paulina!?" Jazz gasped and looked over at Dani. "Dani, Paulina's out there!"

"What!?" Dani and Sam rushed to the window to look out beside Jazz, but the spot where Paulina had been standing was now occupied by another photographer who'd just arrived on the scene.

"I don't see her." Dani placed her cheek to the window, looking around at the crowd.

"She does have your dark side's ghost powers," Sam pointed out. "She could be anywhere."

"But if she's here, why hasn't she attacked us yet?" Dani asked. "My old ghost half isn't this subtle, and Paulina's too dim to come up with some fancy plan. Something isn't right here."

"You toasted him pretty bad last time you met. He probably doesn't want a head-on confrontation." Jazz moved away from the window, holding her daughter closer to her chest. "But they wouldn't come here if they weren't after something. The only question is, what are they after? And why would they come now of all times?"

"Until we find out for sure, maybe we should try to hide somewhere." Dani suggested.

"Kind of hard to do that with the whole world watching Jazz's every move." Sam pointed out. "We can't even risk you moving her with your powers or you could be spotted helping her."

The conversation would have continued, but just then Jazz's door creaked open and Maddie poked her head into the room. She looked frantic and worried as she looked around for a moment before spotting them. "Jazz, do you know where the phone went? We're going to call the police and get these people out of here. This is madness."

"Oh, sorry. I have it in my room." Dani moved away from the window, but Jazz took her shoulder in one hand.

"Hold on, don't call the police. I want to make a statement."

"Jasmine, you don't have to." Maddie shook her head. "It's your business and nobody else's."

"I want to clear this up and stop all of the speculation that I'm sure is taking place right now." Jazz turned her gaze to Dani, giving her a meaningful expression. "Besides, it might be a good opportunity to get some things out into the open."

Maddie hesitated a moment. "Well... if you're sure."

"I am." Jazz approached Dani and handed Hope to her before turning back toward her mother. "Come on, let's get this over with." She turned to leave quickly, letting her mother rush to keep up with her.

When they were gone, Sam and Dani exchanged a glance, then rushed to the window to watch the proceedings. The ground was still covered with snow, but no more was falling at the moment while the people waited and watched for any sign of the woman whose name had become world-famous within a matter of hours, possibly even minutes. Sam opened the window and they both leaned against the windowsill, with Hope comfortably nestled in Dani's arms.

They waited silently for a few minutes, but it didn't look like Jazz was going to emerge any time soon. "So... did you make out with him?" Dani asked.

Sam narrowed her eyes, refusing to look at her. "Shut up."

"It's an honest question."

"Look, there's Jazz." Sam pointed down to the ground. For a moment Dani thought she was just changing the subject, but then she saw Jazz emerging from the front door. The chatter from the crowd picked up as the flashes of dozens of cameras nearly blinded Jazz, who had to shield her eyes from the light and squint to see anything. She stayed at the top of the steps that led up to the FentonWorks entrance, so that she could look out over the heads of the crowd.

"Please, everyone quiet down!" She raised her hands for silence and shouted over the roar of the crowd. It took a few minutes, but at last the questions and chatter began to die down. "My name is Jasmine Fenton, and I'm sure everyone has heard lots of things about me in the last hour or two." She squinted as the cameras around her once again began to flash like strobes. "No more flash photography or I'm not telling you anything! I mean it!"

One more camera flashed in her direction, but she fixed it with a narrow glare and the photographer swiftly apologized. "Now I'm going to tell you all the single, solitary truth. Months ago, I found myself in a situation where I had to go to Vlad Masters for help..." Jazz launched into an abridged version of the story. She left out everything about the ghosts and their abilities, but was careful to structure her story to make sure there was no doubt about what Vlad had done to her.

"Dani." Sam hit her arm suddenly, looking up at a roof across the street. "It's Paulina." Dani looked to see that Sam was right. Paulina was standing on the roof of the building right across from them, watching the speech below with her glowing, ghostly red eyes shining through the dull gray sky.

"I'll go see what she's doing here." Dani carefully handed Hope over to Sam.

"I'll be here not making any male friends," Sam replied.

"Haha." Dani moved away from the window and let her body flash with light, phasing into her power ghostly form. She floated up from the floor. "We'll continue this discussion later."

Sam rolled her eyes. "I'll sure be looking forward to that."

Dani shook her head and turned invisible as she phased through the wall, soaring over the crowd below. Jazz was still speaking, with her parents standing behind her. Hopefully she would be able to keep their attention on her and away from the ghosts on top of the nearby building. Dani flew through the building and came up through the roof behind Paulina, settling down on the tiles before turning visible.

Dani decided not to beat around the bush. "What do you want, Paulina?"

Paulina whirled around in surprise. To Dani's shock, her eyes weren't cold and calculating... in fact, she seemed to be crying. "Dani... God." Paulina sank to her knees weakly.

"Paulina!?" Dani rushed up beside her, kneeling down to grip her shoulders as she tried to look at her eyes. "Paulina, are you okay?"

"He hurts me..." Paulina choked. "He won't let me go, Dani... he won't..."

"Ssshhhh, it's okay. I can help you." Dani hugged her gently. "We can get rid of him, if you'll let me help."

Paulina's voice shivered even though she barely spoke above a whisper. "Yes... stay with me."

* * *

Sam narrowed her eyes as she watched Paulina and Dani on the far roof. Her arms tightened around the sleeping baby when she saw Dani kneel down beside Paulina. "What on Earth is going on up there?"

"It's called a diversion," A familiar, but perverted voice spoke behind her. Sam whirled and drew in a deep breath, but one clawed hand slammed into her throat, slamming her head back into the wall and cutting off her windpipe with one deft motion. "Ssssshhhhh. Let's keep this between us, shall we?" Danny grinned an evil grin, his blood red eyes shining.

Sam nodded as much as she could with his throat crushing her neck against he wall. She felt his fingers tighten as he pulled her away from the wall. They loosened just enough to let her breathe while holding her firm. "Let's take a walk." Danny pulled her toward the bedroom door. Sam stumbled after him, holding Hope tightly to her chest to keep from dropping her. She cast a desperate glance back to the window, where she could still see Dani on the other building with Paulina.

"Do you know what I hate most about you humans?" Danny spoke as if they were taking a stroll through the park. "You scurry on about your lives like those ants outside, eating up anything you can get your filthy hands on without ever stopping to realize how meaningless your lives really are." He stopped in the living room to look toward the front door. They could see the crowd of people standing out front, listening to Jazz. "Getting so worked up over a child just because it has money attached to it. You have no idea what true power is." He turned to drag Sam toward the stairs leading down toward the basement.

"How..." Sam managed to gasp out with his hand around her throat.

"How am I able to leave Paulina's body?" Danny finished for her. "It's almost as if I'm in two places at once, isn't it?" He grinned. "As long as I remain inside her, I can feed off of her life force. Even if part of me emerges. But of course, I'll never be able to regain my full power if I'm chained to a weak mortal girl. That is why we're here."

Sam grunted as she was pulled down into the lab. "The Ectoplasm Generator. Where is it?" Danny demanded.

Sam blinked in surprise. "It won't work. We tried it when Dani was deteriorating."

"It will when it's given the proper fuel." Danny grinned and squeezed her throat tighter, cutting off her windpipe. Sam gurgled, but couldn't even struggle without dropping Hope. "Now tell me where it is or I will kill you."

"You'll... kill me... anyway..." Sam gurgled.

"A valid point." Danny suddenly snatched Hope from her arms and fired an ecto-blast into her chest. Sam flew back into the steel wall only two feet away, bouncing off of it and collapsing to the floor with a metallic clang. Sam raised her head instantly though, her heart racing when she saw Hope cradled in one of his arms. "But while you'll forfeit your own life, I know you won't forfeit hers."

Sam wanted to believe that he wouldn't hurt a baby, but she knew better. Danny raised one hand next to the baby's head, his palm glowing with green energy. Hope began to scream in fear at being suddenly snatched away. "The Ectoplasm Generator."

"Okay, okay. Just calm down." Sam raised her hands over her head and rose to her feet, careful not to make any sudden moves. "The baby hasn't done anything to you. There's no reason to hurt her."

"The generator." Danny repeated impatiently. Sam nodded and turned to walk across the basement laboratory. She reached for the handle of the nearby storage compartment, but her hand was shaking too much to pull it open. She found her whole body was trembling, but she fought it back enough to pull the door open and pull out the table with the Ectoplasm Generator attached to it.

"This is it, but it hasn't been used in a while."

"I'm sure it'll do just fine." Suddenly Danny's arm swept back, his fist hitting the side of her face to knock her back into the wall. Sam bounced off of it and collapsed onto her shoulder, grunting in pain as the world began to haze over, then fade to black.

* * *

Paulina's body shuddered in Dani's arms as she tried to comfort her. It was still pretty cold out here, but Dani could tell that that had nothing to do with it.

"What's wrong?" Dani tightened her arms around Paulina worriedly. "Is he trying to control you again? Is he trying to hurt you?"

"He's..." Paulina trailed off, putting one hand to her forehead. "God... he's gonna do it."

"Do what? Paulina, what's going on?" Dani demanded.

Paulina looked up at him. Tears were now flowing down her cheeks from the blood red eyes that were the mark of the ghost inside of her. "I didn't want him to do it, I swear. I... it's so..."

"Paulina!" Dani gripped her shoulders harder, trying to shake her to her senses. "What is going on!?"

"The baby. He's going to kill the baby." Paulina pointed down toward the ground, in the direction of the FentonWorks basement. "You have to go! Hurry!"

"What? But Sam has-" Dani looked across the street toward Jazz's window where he expected to see Sam, but the room was vacant. "No! NO!" Dani shrieked at the top of her lungs and threw herself off the building. The crowd gasped and rushed out of the way of the spot where she dove headfirst into the ground, plunging straight through it at top speed.

She phased through the ceiling into the FentonWorks basements, his head jerking around the room. He spotted Sam lying unconscious against he wall beside the stairs. In the middle of the room the table with the Ectoplasm Generator sat. Hope wailed loudly, her body fastened to the top of the machine by several lengths of rope. The dark ghost stood beside the machine, tightening the last rope that bound her legs.

"Let her go!" Dani floated down to land on the ground, her fists glowing bright green.

"I had hoped to finish before Paulina's weakness let me down." Danny Phantom turned to fix Dani with a crooked grin.

"You know I can blast you into Ectoplasm right now." Dani growled.

"And risk obliterating the child? That's not in your nature." Danny raised one hand and a burst of ecto-energy caught Dani in the chest, sending her back against the wall. Dani raised her hands to return her fire, but halted when she realized Hope was still in the way. Another blast from both of Danny's palms blew Dani back into the steel wall hard enough to make a solid dent the size of her body.

Danny walked forward, raising his arms out to the sides. "Go ahead. Fire. Maybe you'll hit me. Maybe you'll turn me into a steaming pile of ectoplasm. Or maybe I'll dodge, and her blood will decorate these walls." Dani tried to pull out of the dent in the wall, but another blast from both of Danny's hands shoved her back even harder, and this time didn't stop. Dani's screams joined the wailing of the baby, still tied to the top of the machine as it whirred to life.

Suddenly the ecto-beam stopped and Dani slipped out of the dent in the wall to the floor. Her breath was a shuddering pant and her body was smoking from the force of the blast as she looked up to see what had happened. Jazz was standing beside one of the nearby desks, a Fenton Cat-O-Nine-Tails clutched in one hand. The many whips that shot out of the end had Danny Phantom bound in the middle of the room.

"Stay away from my BABY!" Jazz yanked on the handle of the Cat-O-Nine-Tails, yanking Dark Danny in her direction. She leapt forward to meet him halfway, one fist slamming into his fist. Danny flew back so fiercely he broke through the chains at the end of the weapon and skidded across the polished steel floor into the wall beside the Fenton Portal.

"What the...?" The dark ghost pushed himself up to a kneeling position, rubbing his jaw where her fist connected. His eyes widened when he saw a silver belt hanging around Jazz's waist. "The Specter Deflector. Always thinking ahead, aren't you?"

Jazz snarled, not in the mood for witty banter. "Get out."

Danny Phantom looked past her, seeing that Dani had phased Hope through the roped on the Ectoplasm Generator and was holding her, watching the confrontation with a sharp gaze. Danny smirked and rose to his feet, his gaze meeting Jazz's. "You just made a mistake. You could've killed me with the element of surprise, but you didn't. When I get my hands on her, that child's blood will be on your hands, Jazz. And I will take her. It's only a matter of time." He vanished suddenly.

Jazz turned away from him, looking back to see Dani holding Hope in the middle of the room. Jazz's trembling hands ripped the Specter Deflector off of her waist as she rushed across the room, lifting the screaming baby out of Dani's arms. "Ssshhhh... it's okay, Hope. It's okay..." She leaned her cheek against the baby's head, holding her as close as she could without hurting her. "It's going to be okay... I promise."

Dani looked away uncomfortably, spotting Sam sitting up near the wall and rubbing a large bruise that was forming on her head. Silently Dani flung Sam's arm around her shoulders, heaving her up from the floor to a standing position.

Dani turned to approach Jazz's back, helping Sam move since she was still dazed from the impact. "He's not going to stop." Dani took a deep breath, trying to sound calm and steady. "If he wants her, he's going to keep coming for her."

"Then..." Jazz sniffled, keeping her back to the two of them. "The only way to keep her safe... is if she's not here..."

* * *

Her shrieks split the air as her body thrashed against the ground, glowing green tendrils of ectoplasmic power racing across her body, through her blood. She couldn't even feel the bruises her thrashing caused, nor did she care about messing up her own skin. She couldn't feel or thinking through the pain that keep coursing through her for hours. At last, it subsided and she lay on the ground limply, staring at the ceiling with a numb gaze.

An important lesson, Paulina. Danny Phantom spoke into her mind. Please, don't make me repeat it.

Paulina spoke with a dull voice, unmoving. "Yes... my love..."

* * *

Sam and Dani sat on the sofa in the FentonWorks building early Christmas morning, holding each other in their arms. The Christmas tree sitting nearby sat untouched, its branches still hiding the presents underneath. Neither of them moved or spoke, watching the television as if It was the only thing that mattered. All of the news stations kept repeating Jazz's speech, especially the end.

"I'm sorry..." Jazz took a deep breath on the television, standing once again on the steps in front of her house. "It was all a lie... a lie to get to Vlad Masters' money. I don't have Vlad Masters' child. I don't even... I don't even have a child." Her voice shivered as she spoke, though she did her best to remain composed. "I'm sorry for lying. I'm sorry for wasting everybody's time in this matter. I'm... I'm sorry." She closed her eyes and turned away from the cameras just before the tears overwhelmed her.

Maddie rushed forward to take her shoulder, shouting to the crowd. "That's it! No more! It's done!" She waved them away and turned to help Jazz back into the FentonWorks building as the news anchor came on the screen.

"And that was the scene yesterday afternoon, when a hoax started and ended within a few hours. Started by a teen girl just crying out for attention."

Dani turned off the TV, sniffling and leaning back against the cushions. "They sealed her medical records... and the adoption agency has agreed to change her name. Move her to another state. Nobody will ever be able to find Hope now. Not us..."

"And not Danny Phantom." Sam squeezed Dani's waist tighter, resting her cheek against her shoulder. "She's safe."

"Yeah..." Dani shook her head. "I just wish there was another way. If we could get rid of the ghost..."

"We don't know where he is, and this was too close. Next time, Paulina might not tip us off. If it wasn't for her..."

"I know." Dani closed her eyes.

Sam's voice softened. "How's Jazz holding up?"

Dani looked up at the ceiling, letting her head rest against the cushions. "She hasn't come out of her room since last night. I think she still needs more time."

Sam looked up at the ceiling as well, leaning back against Dani's chest. "I know I'm feeling really bad about all of this. I can't even imagine what it's like for her."

* * *

_They say that sometimes the best thing you can do for the one you love is let them go. What they never say is how much it hurts. I have no choice but to trust complete strangers to take care of Hope. To nurture her and to raise her well. To love her. I gave away my child for her protection... and it feels like she took my heart with her._

Jazz lay alone in her bedroom, with a box of tissues lying on the mattress beside her pillow. Her face was buried in her pillow, her eyes unable to stand even the gentle silver light that reflected off of the gently swaying snow outside her window. Her sobs, though muffled by her pillow, seemed to carry on for miles through the cold glass. An endless wave of tears that seemed certain never to subside.

_Danny often said that the hardest things he's ever had to do have been the right things to do. If that's true, then this must have been the greatest act of them all. I would rather face a hundred ghosts with nothing to rely on but my own fists than to feel this pain. It's like nothing I've ever felt before. It feels like it's going to swallow me whole._

Jazz turned her head away from her pillow at last, her bloodshot eyes looking through the silver light from her window at the picture that lay right beside her head. It was of a baby sitting idly asleep in the arms of a young redheaded mother. A mother who would have done anything in the world to see that picture come to life. She would have done anything to hold her child in her arms once again.

_When all is said and done, sometimes there's nothing else you can do. My heart is unimportant next to the safety of my child, and the security of her future, however much it hurts. But they say that even after you've felt such pain, after it has felt like you'll never be a whole person again. After the despair and depression have run their course, when everything seems darkest, a miracle happens..._

Slowly Jazz sat up from her bed and took the picture in one hand, tucking it neatly under the front of her shirt over her heart. She made her way out to the living room where she found Sam and Dani sitting on the couch in each other's arms, watching a television program. They both looked up from their show in surprise when they noticed her, watching her stop in front of the sofa. Their expressions changed to ones of happiness when Jazz gave them a soft smile.

_You find the strength to carry on._

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Star returns from Christmas vacation and discovers that Jazz is still depressed about giving up Hope. While Star and Jazz try to work through Jazz's problems, Sam and Dani are spending most of their time gearing up for their wedding, which is... tomorrow! Things take a turn for the worse when Sam's childhood friend turns up to attend the wedding.

Episode 13: Once in a Lifetime


	13. Once in a Lifetime

(Note: The song "What About Love" performed by Meatloaf)

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

When Hope's identity as Vlad's heiress was leaked to the media, Dark Danny took notice and lashed out in an attempt to sacrifice Hope for his own revival. Thanks to a moment of rebellion from Paulina, Dani arrived just in time to stop the sacrifice from going through, and Dark Danny was defeated. But to ensure her daughter's safety, Jazz put her child up for adoption and let her slip away into another part of the country where she could never be tracked. Meanwhile, Sam and Dani had their first spat as Dani discovers that Sam had a boyfriend before she moved to Amity Park.

Episode 13: Once in a Lifetime

Star leaned against the window of the jetliner, looking out through the gently falling snow as the town of Amity Park came into view over the horizon. The pilot came over the loudspeaker in a few moments to tell them they'd arrived and that they should fasten their seatbelts. Star complied, then turned to look out the window again, smiling at the sight of her home coming into view. Sure, she hadn't been born here. But for the first time she really started to see it as her home. Ever since she'd come to know Sam and Jazz.

Her lips curled into a serene smile as the plane lowered down to land on the long runway and come to a stop in front of the airport. When the overhead light came on Star stood from the seat with her sister and mother, who were sitting in the two seats beside hers.

Moon stretched out her back and took a deep breath as they left the plane into the airport terminal. "Ah. Being confined in flying steel always makes me feel uneasy."

"But at least we made it home in one piece." Their mother smiled. "Did everyone remember to bring their bags off the plane?"

"Yeah." Star and Moon spoke in unison and held up their bags. The only bags they had taken on vacation with them, since their mother didn't trust the airlines not to lose their things. They relied very much on technology, after all. And technology was evil when it wasn't very, very convenient.

"Alright then, let's go home and rest. Flying makes me so stiff." Their mother put her hands on her back and straightened to the sound of a series of sickening pops. She turned to head through the airport, and her daughters began to follow her. But after a few steps Star fell behind, looking around the airport terminal. She didn't see anything of interest, and that worried her.

"Star?" Moon approached her with a concerned expression on her face. "Is something wrong?"

"Jazz knew I was coming home today." Star looked at her sister. "Why isn't she here to meet me?"

"I'm sure she has her reasons." Moon smiled and took her hand. "Come on. You can ask her after we get home and unpack."

"I guess." Star looked around the small airport terminal one last time, just in case she missed her friend waiting in a corner somewhere. But when she didn't see her, she turned to follow her sister away from the terminal and towards home.

* * *

Dani's thick boots tromped through the snow as she walked through the small, idyllic park in the middle of Amity Park. She looked down at her left hand, while the fingers of her right ran over and over again across the ring on her finger. She had read and touched the engraved inscription so much she could probably read it without even looking at it. Tomorrow it would be replaced by a new ring; a wedding ring that would stay there for the rest of her life.

"Not getting cold feet, are you?" Dani's head snapped up to see Sam approaching with a gentle smile on her face. Her hands were jammed into the pockets of her warm trench coat, which completely covered her body from neck to toe.

"Of course not." Dani shook her head. "It just feels like my stomach is trying to burst out of my body and escape."

Sam laughed. "Yeah, I know the feeling. My mom says that's normal."

"Mine too." Dani looked down at the ring one last time. "Come on, let's sit down." Dani gestured to a nearby park bench. Sam nodded and together they sat down. They sat close together, leaning against each other with their shoulders touching. Dani leaned her head to the side, letting it rest on Sam's shoulder.

"Does it really feel like it's gonna happen?" Sam asked. "Seems like it's still just a far off dream, not something coming up in less than 24 hours."

"Yeah." Dani nodded. "Are you sure you want to do it?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have asked." Sam looked down at Dani resting on her shoulder. "Are you sure?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have said yes." Dani looked back up at her. Sam smiled and slipped an arm around her waist. "Is the rest of my life going to be like this moment right here?"

"That's the idea." Sam chuckled. "No promises though."

Dani smiled in contentment and closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of Sam's body. Her moment of bliss was broken however when she heard a pair of footsteps tromp through the snow in front of them, coming to a stop in front of the park bench. She opened her eyes to see a boy their age standing in front of them, with his hands jammed into the pockets of a thick blue jacket. A pair of emerald green eyes watched them from under a set of blonde bangs that poked out from under a beanie that kept his head warm.

"Sammie?" He asked with a smile.

"What? Who..." Sam trailed off, her eyes going wide. "Mikey!? Is that you!?" She jumped up from the bench, almost throwing Dani to the snow, and wrapped her arms around the strange boy. "Oh my God! I can't believe you came all the way out here!"

"You couldn't keep me away." The boy hugged her back in a firm embrace. In a few moments they pulled away from each other and he looked down at her. Even with the trench coat covering her body, her form was still partially visible. "Wow. You've grown so much."

"Me? Look at you. I didn't even recognize you." Sam chuckled. "Guess that's what three years does to you."

"You look beautiful." Mike smiled. Sam blushed and a broad grin lit up her features. Suddenly a hand on her shoulder pulled her further back from the boy and Dani stepped forward with a fake grin plastered on her face.

"You're Mike, I take it?" Dani asked.

"Oh, yeah." Sam stepped forward again. "Dani, this is my best friend from Nevada, Michael Rosenburg. Mike, this is my fiancé Dani Fenton."

"Fiancé?" Mike looked at Dani in surprise. "I thought you'd be more... er... masculine."

"Are you saying I look like a girl?" Dani demanded angrily.

"Well, actually, yeah." Mike nodded. Dani looked down at her body, which was definitely curved more like a woman's than a man's. That didn't stop her from shooting Mike another venomous glare.

Sam chuckled. "It's a very long story that would just bore you to tears." One of her elbows discreetly buried itself in Dani's side before she could make any smart remarks. Dani huffed for breath while Sam took one of Mike's hands. "Come on, let's go back to my place. We have so much catching up to do, and I'm sure you and Dani will have a lot to talk about too."

"You can bet on it." Dani grumbled and turned to follow Sam and Mike down the sidewalk toward Sam's mansion.

* * *

Star approached the FentonWorks building after they'd had a chance to get home and unpack their things. They didn't have much to unpack, so it didn't take long. It was only four in the afternoon when they'd finished. She was still tired from the long flight, but she wasn't about to let that stop her. She couldn't rest not knowing what was happening to Jazz. She promised she would be there, and she'd never broken a promise before. Something had to be wrong.

She knocked on the door, and in a few moments Jazz's mother pulled the door open. "Hi Mrs. Fenton. Is Jazz home?"

"She's upstairs in her room." Maddie smiled sadly and stepped aside to let her in. "Maybe you should go talk to her."

"What? What's wrong with her?"

"I'm sure she'll tell you." Maddie pushed her gently toward the stairs. "Go on, I think she would like to see you now." Star blinked in confusion and turned to look up the stairs while Maddie went into the kitchen. Star made her way up the steps and down the hall, stopping in front of the first room on the right. She reached out and knocked on the door. It took several moments before she heard a response from inside.

"It's open." Jazz's voice was soft, but no less firm than it usually was.

Star pushed the door open slowly. Jazz's room was dark except for the dull gray light that came in through the window and the gentle glow of the computer monitor set against the wall. Jazz was sitting at the computer, her fingers flying across the keyboard at a rapid pace. There were several pictures of Hope spread out in front of her, and a box of tissues sitting on the desk beside her. Star looked around the room, searching for the baby, but she didn't see her anywhere. Maddie didn't have her, Jazz didn't have her...

"Star?" Jazz blinked in surprise and looked down at her watch. "Oh man, I'm sorry. I completely forgot you were coming home today."

"It's okay." Star closed the door behind her. "What are you doing?"

"Me? Oh..." Jazz turned back to her computer screen. Star walked up behind her to look curiously. She was typing a document on a word processor. "I was just writing down some things. Kind of a journal."

"About Hope?" Star read through a couple of paragraphs, detailing thoughts and moments over the last few months.

Jazz remained silent and let Star read the last few paragraphs. The hum of the computer monitor was the only thing that broke the thick silence. By the time Star finished reading, there were tears forming in the bottom of her eyes. She turned to look at Jazz, who was wiping her eyes with a tissue.

"Jazz..." She leaned down and hugged her friend tightly from the side. Jazz leaned against her and closed her eyes, holding a tissue over them as her shoulders began to shake. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't here." She took a deep breath, stroking her friend's back. "If you need anything, I'm right here for you. You helped me so much over the last few months, I want to help you."

"I'll be okay." Jazz replied when she could speak. She moved off of Star's chest, wiping her eyes with her tissue and throwing it into a small trash bin she had beside her bed. It was almost full of tissues, and a couple of soda cans. "It's just... just the normal grieving procedure. Psychologically, there are stages... they're the... I can't remember what they're called."

"Yeah, I know you'll be okay." Star smiled warmly, looking into her eyes. "Because you're the strongest girl I've ever known."

"Thank you." Jazz sniffled with a soft smile on her face. Suddenly Jazz grabbed her, pulling her into a tight hug. Jazz's face was buried against Star's shoulder, while her arms wrapped around her torso in a tight embrace. Star hesitated a single instant before wrapping her arms around Jazz, holding her as tightly as she could while her cheek rested against Jazz's. They stayed that was for a long time, but neither was in a hurry to move.

* * *

"I'm so glad you could make it." Sam walked into her living room with several glasses of water in her hands. "I've been wondering who my bridesmaid should be... but maybe I could have a best man instead?"

"I'd love to." Mike smiled and took his water from her. They were all seated in the living room on Sam's massive, fluffy sofas that one could get lost in if they weren't careful. "I must confess, I never imagined that you would end up this way, Sam." He looked at Dani, who was sitting on a chair apart from them with her arms folded across her chest. "Not that I object, it's just a surprise."

"Well, it's a surprise to me too." Sam sat down beside Mike. "But when something feels right, when you feel the way I do, why bother hiding it right?"

"Of course." Mike nodded with a smile. "Never let anyone tell you who to be. Isn't that what you always told me?"

"Always meant it too." Sam grinned. She looked at Mike, looking into his eyes. "How about you? What have you been doing since I left? Did you ever tell Melissa that you liked her?"

"No." Mike grinned and blushed. "She got a boyfriend shortly after you left. They've been together since."

"Wow, I'm sorry to hear that." Sam smiled sympathetically. "But hey, there are plenty of girls out there. And you're the kind of guy who can have any girl he wants." Mike smiled as their eyes met, staring into each other deeply.

Dani suddenly plopped down on the sofa between them. "You know, Sam could've had any boy too. But she chose me."

Mike blinked. "Yes, I can see that."

"Which means we'll be together forever. With no other people." Dani continued.

"That is what marriage is about."

"Yes, it is." Sam gripped Dani's arm tight enough to make her yelp. "Dani? Can we talk in the kitchen?" Sam stood up without waiting for an answer and dragged Dani into the kitchen. "What the heck is wrong with you? Stop marking your territory! It's rude and insulting!"

"I don't like the way he's looking at you," Dani retorted. "I can see it in his eyes. He's going to take you from me!"

"No he's not! He's my best friend!" Sam shouted. "And I don't want to ever hear you refer to me as 'yours' again! I am not your property!"

"Of course you're not my property! But you're my fiancé and I don't want anyone to take you from me!"

"Nobody is 'taking' me from you because you don't 'have' me! You do not own me Dani! And you never will! This is a partnership!"

"I'm not saying I own you! I just don't want to lose you!"

"Well why can't you trust me enough to believe I won't leave you!?" They were both shouting by now, and Sam's fists were shaking in anger. "Even if someone wants me it doesn't mean I'll go with them! Trust me enough to realize that!"

"I do trust you! It's HIM I don't trust!" Dani pointed angrily toward the entrance of the kitchen. Her speech stopped in its tracks when she realized Mike was standing right there with his hand resting on the doorframe.

"Mike." Sam cleared her throat nervously.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I don't want to cause any friction, so I think I'll just take off and see you at the wedding tomorrow." He approached the two girls and gave Sam a swift kiss on the cheek. "It was nice to meet you, Dani." He waved with a nervous smile and turned to leave.

"Hey, Mike, wait!" Sam shot Dani a venomous glare, then rushed to follow Mike into the living room.

Dani stared after them, debating for a moment whether to follow. At last she heaved a sigh and sat down at the nearby table, resting her head in her hands and staring at the table. She'd really done it now. Screaming at Sam about her friend while he was standing there watching. Sam would probably scream at her, hit her a couple of times, and call off the marriage. And Dani couldn't claim she didn't deserve it.

Dani raised her head when she heard Sam clear her throat from the kitchen doorway. Her eyes were like daggers, and her arms were crossed over her chest in a stern manner. "What the fuck was that?"

Dani cringed. Hearing one of those words from her mouth was a rare occurrence, and a sure sign that she was really ticked. "I'm sorry. I just..."

"Just what!? Don't trust me!? Don't want me to have a life outside of you!?" Sam marched around the table, slamming her palm down on the wood beside Dani. "Just WHAT, Dani!?"

"Just love you... I couldn't stand to lose you. To anyone." Dani lowered her eyes to the table. "I'm sorry, Sam. It's just... he's everything to you that I ever was. And he's still a boy. If anyone deserves you, it's him..."

"Dani." Sam clenched her fist, then her arms relaxed and she plopped down in the chair beside her. "He's not everything to me that you ever were. He's my best friend and confidante. And we share so many precious memories that I'll never be able to just leave him behind." Dani looked away, but Sam grabbed her hand and pulled her around again, making sure they were face to face. "But he's never been my hero. He's never been my lover. And he could never, ever, take your place."

Sam smiled and gripped her hands tighter. "And he is not the person I intend to marry tomorrow afternoon." Dani smiled back under her bangs, which hung down in front of her eyes. "I love you, Dani. Don't you ever doubt that again, and don't you ever believe I could love anyone more than you. Because that's just not possible."

"I hope you're sure," Dani said softly. "Because after tomorrow, there's no going back."

"I never want to go back." Sam smiled and drew her into a tight hug. "Tomorrow can't come soon enough. The future is bright, Dani. Because it has us together. Forever."

* * *

The next day the sun shone down across the serene white powder, reflecting back up into the sky like a giant mirror. There was no more time for worrying, and there was no more time for fighting. It was the day they had been waiting for, the day that would change their lives for the rest of time. Neither of them could claim they weren't a bit nervous, but were they ready to run away and call it quits? Not a chance.

Dani sat back in her chair while the fashion experts flitted about her body clad in a snow-white tuxedo, slipping on various pieces of her tux and applying makeup. Dani watched in the mirror while her appearance changed, watches herself grow more and more beautiful with every passing moment. It was a strange sensation, seeing it happen like this. More makeup was applied, and her hair was swept down her shoulders in a beautiful, feminine manner.

"Just a moment, um... Javier was it?" Dani turned to look at one of her stylists.

"Qui." The man said with a smile.

"You're one of the best in Amity Park, aren't you?"

"Madam, I am one of ze best in ze world. I vould not even be here for anyone but ze Manson family." He replied with a thick French accent.

"Great. I would like you to work something of a miracle." Dani reached into her tuxedo jacket and pulled out a small picture, holding it up to the man. He took it and looked down at it with a confused gaze. "I want you to make me look exactly like that."

Javier looked at her blankly, then his mouth spread into a broad grin. "Qui. Zat I can certainly do."

* * *

Sam stood in front of the massive body-length mirror, holding her arms out to the sides. They were covered with long black gloves that seemed to glitter in the lights that shone down from overhead. Her dress was an extravagant affair that started above her breasts and seemed to flow in a solid mass down her body around her ankles, like a pitch-black shadow. Several women rushed around her body making last second adjustments, including to the veil that she would wear down the isle, and the train of her dress.

After much discussion, they'd decided to combine Jewish and Christian wedding traditions to make sure everyone was happy. Dani's father didn't seem interested in the details, but his mother had been raised in the south was surprisingly strong in her conviction. So they'd decided to compromise. Sam's mother continued to complain about it every once in a while, but it was easy to tune her out.

Sam turned her head when she heard the door of her dressing room open and her mother rushed in, looking up at her with a bright smile that Sam wasn't used to seeing on her face. "Oh, Sam. You look so beautiful. Though if it was white you would probably look more beautiful."

White is for virgins, Sam thought sarcastically to herself. Out loud she said, "I have my own way of doing things. You know that, mom."

"Yes, yes, of course." Her mother sighed. "You always have and always will." She approached Sam's small pedestal and climbed up in front of her, looking at her face. She smiled and reached a hand out to touch her cheek. "I never imagined this moment would come so soon. I thought I would at least get to see you through high school, and now look at you. You've grown up so much faster than most."

"I still have growing to do." Sam replied with a soft smile. "I just want to do my growing up with Dani. But I don't want to throw you out of my life either. I still need someone to tell me to keep going to school even though it's the government's way of teaching us all to be mindless industrial drones."

Her mother chuckled. "And I'll still be here with you, Sam. As long as you need me, whether you want me or not." She grinned through a wave of tears that began to slide down her cheeks. "No matter what happens from here on, I am so proud of you, Sam. I may not agree with everything you do. But I can't possibly question your passion for the things that you do. If you truly love this... this girl, then you have my blessing."

Sam smiled, unable to stop the tears on her cheeks. She reached out and hugged her mother tightly. "Thanks, mom. That means a lot."

She pulled back when the door to her dressing room opened again. "We're ready to begin when you're ready," a man told them.

"Looks like this is it." Sam took a deep breath, running her hands down her body to smooth out her dress.

Her mother took the veil and adjusted it over her head, tugging it into place over her eyes and giving her a smile. "I'll be right here with you, Sam." With one last tender smile, her mother turned to head out to join the others in the main building. As she left her father entered the room and gave her a gentle smile, offering his arm to her. Sam smiled and left the pedestal to slip her arm through his, and they left the dressing room together.

* * *

The main chamber of the small synagogue was decorated with a lavish assortment of decorations, paid for in full by Sam's mother, who wanted to make sure this was the greatest celebration the small town had ever seen. There wasn't an inch of wall that wasn't covered in some one-of-a-kind piece of intricate artwork celebrating the joyous occasion. At the front of the synagogue a Chuppah was set up in front of the Rabbi's podium. The four poles that held up a piece of cloth were wrapped in sheets of black and violet velvet, at Sam's request. The roof above the structure was open into the cold night sky, though thankfully it wasn't snowing.

The main doorway into the chamber opened as a beautiful piano melody began to echo across the large, empty room. Sam entered through the door, her arm hooked around that of her father as she slowly made her way down the isle. She couldn't see much through the thick violet veil over her eyes. She could see the shapes of those in the audience watching her, while Star waited on her side of the podium outside of the Chuppah. Jazz was standing beside Dani as the best man. It wasn't normal... but then, what about this relationship was?

Sam marched down the isle toward Dani and the Rabbi to the tune of the music. When they reached the front Sam felt her father pass her to Dani, who took her arm and helped guide her under the white sheet that flapped lightly in the breeze from the skylight. The ceremony proceeded as normal, with the usual flapping of gums that bored Sam to tears. Her gaze stayed on Dani most of the time, though she could barely see her through the thick veil. She looked strange somehow. Something was different.

At the appropriate time, Sam held up her hand to let Dani slip the wedding ring onto her finger. She held it up, watching the sparkle from its many diamonds shine even through the veil. Then she took her ring from Star, who had been holding it for her, and slipped it onto Dani's finger. This one had no diamond on it, but it was once again intricately carved, this time with their faces on one side while a silver heart shined from the opposite side of the band.

"You may kiss the bride." The Rabbi told them at last. Sam felt Dani's hands move up to her veil to grab it and pull it off to the side. Sam's eyes went side in shock.

Standing in front of her was something that couldn't possible be real. It was Danny... the real Danny. His shoulders were broad, and there was no trace of feminine curves anywhere on his body. Even his face looked just like it did a long time ago, with the same boyish smile making his deep blue eyes shine with happiness. Sam couldn't speak; she was so stunned by the sight of him.

"D... Danny...?" Sam muttered at last.

"Hey Sam." Danny smiled lovingly. Even his voice had gone back to how it was. There wasn't a trace of femininity anywhere on him.

"Danny? But... but it's impossible. How did you...?" Sam stuttered in confusion.

"One extreme makeover. And one of my parents' new voice synthesizers." Danny took her hands in both of his, holding them tightly. "I wanted today to be as perfect as it could possibly be. And to do it as the real me. The boy you fell in love with. The boy who fell in love with you."

"Danny..." Sam smiled happily and wiped the tears from her eyes, then leapt forward and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a deep, passionate kiss. The people in the audience stood up and let out a tremendous cheer as confetti exploded from some of the decorations on the walls. Their kiss could have gone on for the rest of their lives, but Danny's father slapping them both on the shoulders interrupted it.

"Let's partay! Yeah!" Jack screamed into the air.

Soon the people had moved from the synagogue to a large auditorium that happened to be owned by the Manson family. It was decorated even more outlandishly than the synagogue, with ice sculptures dangling from the ceiling depicting doves flying through the air. Every table had a sculpture on it, it was as if they were under attack by ice-people. With the two sculptures of Sam and Danny near the entrance leading the charge.

"I still can't believe this really happened." Star approached the two of them with a broad grin on her face. "Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. Only fifteen and you already have your soul mates. I am so jealous."

"Keep your eyes peeled Star." Sam smiled. "You never know who'll come walking around the corner."

"That's a pleasant thought." Star giggled and turned to look around. "I wonder where they stashed that punch?" She wandered off in search of the punch bowl.

Sam turned to Danny with a smile on her face. "I never really thought that weddings were magical. Then you had to go and prove me wrong."

Danny chuckled. "Well, I like to think I can be romantic when I put my mind to it."

Sam looked down at his chest curiously. "So, you have them taped down or something?"

"Yep." Danny nodded.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." Danny smiled. "But you're worth it." Sam laughed.

They both looked up when they heard a soft song begin playing over the auditorium's loudspeakers. The technician they hired to take care of the music of the night spoke over the loudspeakers. "Would our new couple please proceed to the dance floor? Let's get the night ended right."

Sam and Danny looked at each other and clasped hands, then turned to walk out onto the dance floor together.

_There's a hole in the sky tonight  
Did the moon drift too far from sight?  
I would search through this empty darkness  
To see your face in the morning light_

Neither of them was able to stop grinning as they moved closer together. Danny slipped his arms around Sam's waist while she held his shoulders. They moved around each other at a quick pace, moving to the rhythm of the music.

_We've been lost in a sea of confusion  
Got caught up in our selfish delusions  
But make no mistake, I will bend till I break  
Don't let fate make the choice for us_

The people around them began to join in the dancing, until everyone around was moving to the increasing rhythm. Sam and Danny could feel their hearts pounding, the environment and the meaning of the moment at last beginning to settle into their minds. They thought for a moment to be frightened of what it would mean, but they didn't. Instead they let their feet move as one across the dance floor, never backing down.

_What about love that lasts forever?  
What about time to see it through?  
If you don't give you just don't get it   
What about me?  
What about you?  
What about love?_

The song slowed to a gentle pace and they moved closer together. Danny let his arms tighten around Sam's waist, staring into her shining violet eyes. Sam never looked away from him, staring into his eyes with a sharp, penetrating gaze. Slowly they leaned closer together and let their lips meet, forgetting the rhythm of the music as they got caught up in each other's rhythm.

_Once in a lifetime you'll find someone Heaven sent for you  
For a lifetime you'll feel there's a reason to believe   
In a love that's meant to be _

* * *

Star walked through the crowd, which was thinning on the sides as everyone moved onto the dance floor to move in time to the song. Her eyes flitted curiously around the large auditorium. She could see Danny's parents dancing out on the floor, while Sam's parents were over on the other side of the room speaking in soft tones. Star's own family was sitting at one of the tables eating and watching the people dance with serene expressions on their faces. Someone was missing.

Star glanced toward the front doors of the auditorium. Outside, leaning against the railing that overlooked the snow-covered street, stood Jazz. Star weaved her way through the crowd until she took a step outside. Jazz didn't move or say anything, just staring up at the sun that was retreating down toward the distant horizon. Star walked up behind her, but couldn't think of anything to say.

"I really am happy for them." Jazz turned back to look at her and smiled. "I just needed to get out and get some fresh air. It's so stuffy with all those people in there." She looked back at the fiery orange sun again. "It was a beautiful ceremony though. I doubt mine will be half that extravagant."

"Sam's a lucky girl." Star walked up beside Jazz to lean against the rail, looking down at the snow on the sidewalk in front of them. "So, you think you'll get married someday?"

"That's the idea." Jazz smiled slightly. "Get married, have a... a family..." She lowered her head and closed her eyes. Star scooted closer and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she raised her head again. "I'm fine, really."

"Hey." Star backed away from the rail and held out her hand to her with a smile. "Would you like to dance?"

"What?" Jazz turned away from the rail to look back at her.

"It'll take your mind off of things. Besides, it's fun." Star smiled. Jazz looked at her for a minute, then smiled and nodded as she reached out to take her hand.

* * *

Hours passed in joy and dancing before finally Sam and Danny left the dance floor. The sun was almost gone, and their ride to get to the cruise ship for their honeymoon would be leaving shortly. Their hands clutched each other as they stood by the exit, greeting all of those in attendance as they all filed out of the auditorium. The line was moving smoothly, with everyone giving their blessings and well-wishes until Sam's friend Mike approached.

"Hey, I don't want to cause a scene but I have to say what a wonderful night it's been." Mike told them quickly. "So um..."

"Hey, hey." Danny stepped forward and held out his hand. "Look, I'm sorry for what I said. I don't want any bad blood between us. Sam likes you so... I think we should set aside what happened yesterday."

Mike looked up at him with a smile and took his hand in a firm grip. "Hey, no big deal. I understand. Marriage is a stressful time. Lots of things happening."

"Yeah, you're telling me." Danny stepped back.

Sam stepped forward, grinning almost giddily as she wrapped Mike up in a tight hug. "Thanks for coming. I appreciate it so much."

"My pleasure, Sammie. I hope you two have a wonderful life. And I look forward to hearing about your honeymoon." Mike pecked her on the cheek and stepped back, pushing his hands into his pockets and turning to head outside.

When he was gone Sam turned to Danny and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you."

"I'd do anything for you, Sam." Danny smiled warmly, holding her close.

At last the line had ended and Sam and Danny made their way out of the auditorium up to their limo that waited by the curb. The shouts of those around them carried them on their way as they climbed in and sat together as the limo began to move. On to the future, on to the rest of their lives together. On to their honeymoon.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Sam and Dani's honeymoon begins in style, fed by the endless funds that only the Manson family can provide. It's a time of magical days and steamy nights, to forge the final links that hold a couple together for the rest of their lives. But Dani is haunted by strange dreams of Danielle. Are they just stress from the last few weeks, or does she really have a chance to find those who have been lost? And will it cost her Sam so soon after their marriage? This episode contains nudity and sexual content. Reader discretion is strongly advised. If you do not wish to read this episode, a partial recap without the offensive content will be given before Episode 15.

Episode 14: The Eyes of Eternity Part 1


	14. The Eyes of Eternity Part 1

(Note: This episode contains nudity and sexual content. Reader discretion is strongly advised. If you do not wish to read this episode, a partial recap without the offensive content will be given before Episode 15.) 

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Star returned home from her Christmas Vacation to find that Jazz is depressed over being forced to give her daughter up for adoption, and tries to help her cope. Meanwhile, Sam and Dani deal with some last minute issues and then their marriage goes through without a hitch. Joined in matrimony for the rest of their lives, Sam and Dani set out on their first adventure as husband and wife... their honeymoon.

Episode 14: The Eyes of Eternity Part 1

A massive yacht floated serenely through the water, weaving back and forth across the gentle ocean waves. For Dani, the salty ocean air was a huge change after living her whole life in the landlocked town of Amity Park, but she had to admit it was nice to get away. She leaned warily against the railing, looking out across the rolling ocean waves, which reflected the light of the pale full moon overhead. The ocean breeze was pleasantly warm here off the coast of Orchid Bay Florida, thanks to the rapid approach of Spring.

Dani looked to the side when she heard Sam approach from behind, resting her hands on the railing. "They finally have our room ready." She shook her head. "I swear. We spent a lot of money on this cruise and they couldn't even be prepared before we left port? It's a load of crap if you ask me." She yawned and rubbed her eyed. "What a way to start our honeymoon."

"Forget about it." Dani slid her hand across the metal to rest her hand on top of Sam's to pull it away from the rail. "Come on, let's just try to get some rest. We'll have a better day tomorrow I'm sure."

"Can't say today was a bad day, of course." Sam grinned.

Sam's dress shifted around her ankles as she turned to walk with Dani through the hallways of the ship. They were illuminated by soft, romantic lighting and lined with red carpeting that made Dani feel like royalty. The walls were covered in a soft violet cloth with golden designed intricately woven straight into the fabric. It was just then that Dani realized that Sam wasn't the rich one anymore. Being married, Sam's fortune also belonged to Dani.

"I'd carry you across the threshold, but you weigh more than I do." Dani quipped as Sam pushed their door open. As Sam slowly turned her venom-filled eyes on her Dani realized her mistake. "Not... not that you're fat! It's..."

"Just get in." Sam gave her a wry smirk and shoved her inside the room by her shoulder.

The thickest bed Dani had ever seen sat in the middle of the room, taking up over half of the room by itself. It was pretty clear the bed was the primary attraction here, a realization that made Dani blush, though she fully expected to make use of it. That didn't mean the rest of the room was bare, far from it. The walls were lined with beautiful paintings, and an intricately engraved armoire sat in one corner of the room. Almost everything had an erotic image engraved onto it, though not so erotic as to be embarrassingly smutty.

"Subtle," Dani quipped sarcastically.

Sam moaned softly and wandered over to the bed. Her dress dropped down her shoulders to the floor and she collapsed into it in her underwear. Dani supposed that should arouse her, but seeing the thick bed made her eyelids gain weight. She was tired after being up all last night nervous and all tonight waiting for their room to be prepared. So she peeled off her tuxedo top and let her pants fall to the floor before collapsing into the bed beside Sam.

"Is there some rule that says we have to have sex now?" Sam's muffled voice came from the pillow.

"We've broken enough rules, what's one more?" Dani yawned. "We can catch up tomorrow." She waited for Sam's response, but was only greeted with a soft snoring sound from the other side of the bed.

With another yawn Dani closed her eyes, and almost instantly drifted off to sleep. The night embraced her, and seemed to be dragging her away from her body. In fact, she felt like she couldn't even feel her body anymore. For a long time she sat in the darkness with confusion dominating her mind, but at last she saw something coming toward her in the distance. It was a rainbow of energy, an infinite number of colors swirling and coalescing around one another. Always moving in an intricate, but impossibly random pattern.

Dani gasped and covered her face with her arms as the energy washed over her body like a tidal wave, engulfing her in a feeling she'd never known before. When she felt no pain she lowered her arms, and gasped in shock when she saw a figure standing in front of her. The girl before her was sitting on the ground playing a handheld video game, yelling to the empty energy around her in excitement and frustration.

"Darnit... no... no... YES!" Danielle leapt to her feet and pumped her arms into the air. Dani stared in disbelief, but couldn't deny what she was seeing. The real Danielle was standing right in front of her, on a tiny landmass that seemed to be floating on its own in the infinite space of this strange realm. "I finally beat it! Tucker! Tucker! Come look!" Danielle screamed into the void.

"Tucker?" Dani looked around quickly, then stopped when she finally spotted another figure approaching.

Tucker was walking toward them, walking along a tiny landmass that seemed to materialize out of the air in front of him just before his foot would come down on nothing, only to vanish again when he moved past it. He walked as if nothing strange was happening, with a broad smile on his face as he approached Danielle. As he neared, his landmass and Danielle's merged together into one, so that they were sharing the same tiny island.

"Alright." Tucker took the game from her with a grin. "Are you going to try the second stage now?"

"Second stage?" Danielle's expression fell. "That wasn't the end?"

Tucker laughed. "Oh no, that was just the first section of the game. The second is much better."

"Aw man." Danielle huffed and took the game from him. "Stupid game."

"If you want some help, I'll be glad to-"

"I think I can handle it." Danielle whirled away from him with a huff and looked down at the game, facing straight toward Dani.

Slowly her fingers stopped moving on the controls and her eyes lifted from the small screen. She stared straight into Dani's eyes, looking as stunned as Dani felt to be seeing her two lost friends standing right here in front of her. She opened her mouth to speak, but when she spoke it wasn't Danielle's voice that came out.

"Dani! Wake up!" Sam's voice jerked Dani back to consciousness in the dark bedroom. He could see Sam's concerned expression peering down at him, her face illuminated by the porthole in the side of the ship that was directly over their bed. "Are you okay? You started yelling in your sleep."

"Danielle. I saw her. And Tucker." Dani sat up and put one hand to her head. "I saw them both. They were sitting on this magic island in a... floating rainbow..." She trailed off, knowing how stupid it was now that she was saying it out loud. She could also see it in Sam's eyes, though she had the courtesy not to say anything. "It was... just a dream. Wasn't it?"

"Of course it was." Sam pulled her into a gentle hug. "But it sounds like a nice dream."

Dani closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Sam's waist, enjoying the feeling of her skin. "It was so weird. It was like it was really happening. It was like I was really seeing them again. It was nice."

"I miss Tucker too, Dani." Sam said softly into her ear.

Dani took a deep breath, wrapping her arms more tightly around her girlfriend... lover... wife. The scent of Sam's body was strong, mingling with the subtle odor of her perfume. Even the feeling of Sam's breath on the skin of her neck stood out sharply. They felt comforting, and Dani soon found herself relaxing, melting against Sam's body and yielding to her embrace. She wasn't entirely sure when it happened, when the intoxication turned to passion, but soon what little clothing remained on their bodies had been lost to the darkness.

They had been here once before. It seemed like so long ago now that it might as well have been a different life. But here they were now, locked once again in the embrace of the night and their love. Hearts racing, pulses pounding, bodies sweating. Their lives had changed, even their bodies had changed, but the fire in the hearts had not diminished in the slightest. The flames they carried for one another carried them through the remainder of the night, until the golden morning sun began to shine through the porthole over their bed. It shone down on them lying together; their glistening, sweat-drenched bodies as intertwined as the rest of their lives.

A soft groan escaped Dani's lips as she nuzzled her cheek into Sam's bare shoulder, her breath coming deep and fast. "Would it be childish to say 'wow'?"

Sam laughed. "Probably, but you get no argument from me. That was intense." She looked down at Dani with a tender smile. "I hope you're feeling better now."

"Mmhmm." Dani nodded into her soft, pale flesh. She could stay there forever, just holding her for the rest of her life. And that was exactly what she intended to do. "What do you think Tucker would say if he saw us now?"

Sam pursed her lips in deep thought for a moment before answering. "Whoa dude, those chicks are making out."

Dani laughed so hard it took her several minutes to compose herself enough to speak. "Yeah, you're probably right." Dani shook her head with a grin. "He'd get a huge kick out of this."

Sam smiled and sat up, putting one arm around Dani's shoulders to haul her up with her. "Come on. It's a big boat, and there's plenty to do. We have a long day ahead of us."

"Awww, but I'm not sure I'm ready to separate form you yet." Dani whimpered.

"Hey, we have to take a bath first, and the bath tub is big enough for two." Sam winked.

"I'm so there." Dani grinned happily.

* * *

They day wore on and the laughter lasted throughout. They spent most of their time locked in their room, enjoying each other's company and the massive stack of state-of-the-art video games that Sam had brought on board. When they emerged, it was to take advantage of the massive swimming pool that was built into the topmost deck of the yacht, or to eat in the luxurious dining hall where string instruments and scented candles emanated a romantic atmosphere throughout the day. 

Dani couldn't remember a happier day of her life. It was as if all of her troubles simply floated away on the vast ocean that carried them across the sea. As if the rest of the world no longer existed, instead replaced by a single boat where no worry in the world could possibly reach them. Lost loved ones, evil homicidal ghosts, psychotic cults and teenage superheroes all seemed like fading memories of a long-distant past.

At the end of the day as the sun faded beyond the horizon, Dani found herself on a lounge chair beside the pool clad in a deep blue bikini. She wore a pair of sunglasses to ward off the glare of the sun as she watched Sam do laps around the pool, doing backstrokes, sidestrokes, breaststrokes, and every other kind of stroke Dani could name. She always was the most athletic person Dani knew.

She pushed the sunglasses up to her forehead when Sam emerged from the pool and stood beside her, sopping wet. "I think I've had my fill of watching you bake." Sam chuckled.

"Let me get nice and toasty, I'll taste good for tonight." Dani smiled.

"Oh you tasted fine last night." Sam grinned and grabbed Dani's hand to yank her up from the chair. Dani blushed deeply with a huge grin on her face as Sam pulled her to her feet. "Now come on, the night is young and I feel like taking advantage of it." Sam slipped closer to her, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"You don't want to take in some of the night life? I hear they start special shows after ten P.M." Dani wrapped her arms around Sam's waist, stroking gently.

"Those are gonna be uptight and boring. I feel like sharing a bit more fire with you." Sam winked and moved toward the entrance into the yacht, dragging Dani with her by the hand.

The next few hours fell into another session of intense lovemaking as they basked in the freedom of having their love fully, completely, out in the open. When it was over they lay side-by-side on top of their sheets, once again panting and sweating in contentment as the light of the moon filtered in through the porthole above their heads. They looked into each other's eyes with a loving stare.

"That's gonna get boring at this rate," Dani warned.

"Then we'll have to enjoy it while we can." Sam nodded. Dani chuckled while Sam pushed herself up to a sitting position. "I'm gonna go wash up. You can join me, or lay here in your own sweat a little longer."

"Just give me a second, and I'll be right in." Dani told her. Sam nodded and slid off of the bed, turning to head into the bathroom. Dani watched her go, watching the way the soft, pale flesh of her body moved until she disappeared into the bathroom.

Dani slipped her hands behind her head with a contented sigh. Her mind was racing now, thinking about so many things she could barely contain them. Most of her thoughts turned to Sam, but from somewhere in the back of her mind the rainbow realm from the night before crept to the forefront. The colors swirled around each other through the recesses of her mind, as if seeking something. It was like she'd forgotten something... was the rainbow somehow familiar? She couldn't remember.

"Dani?" Dani snapped back to reality when she heard Sam's voice. Sam was sitting on the bed beside her wearing a thick, luxurious bathrobe that covered her squeaky clean flesh while her wet hair sat matted to her forehead. She stared deeply into Dani's eyes, her violet orbs flicking back and forth between each of Dani's until it seemed like she wanted to pluck them out and eat them.

"Wh... whaaaat?" Dani blushed. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"I wanted to see what you were thinking." Sam smiled. "The eyes are the window to the soul, after all."

"The eyes..." Dani stared at her for a moment, something flaring in the back of her mind. Suddenly her mind was thrown back several weeks to the Guys in White headquarters, where she'd first found Danielle's body.

Danny reached up slowly with one hand and placed his fingers against her cheek. It was warm to the touch. He wasn't sure why he expected it to be cold and lifeless, Agent Windsbury had told him she was still alive. Just asleep for a very long time. He moved his hand to her lips, feeling her steady breath brushing against the palm of his hand before he moved his hands up to her closed eyes, placing a hand over each eye. Gently he pried them apart, and stepped back in shock.

"Dani?" Dani blinked back to the present, drawn by Sam's voice once again. "Seriously, are you okay? You're zoning an awful lot lately."

"I'm... fine. I'm fine." Dani looked down at her hands. The light in her dream, the rainbow, it was the same one she'd seen in Danielle's eyes. The eyes of the body she now possessed. "I should wash up too, maybe that'll help clear my head."

"Yeah, that would probably be a good idea." Sam still looked worried, but she said nothing more on the subject.

Dani went into the bathroom and took a quick shower in the stall large enough for two. They really left the options for enjoyment open at this place. But it was an option Dani didn't feel like taking. She just wanted to get to sleep and clear her head. So she finished washing up and made her way back into the main bedroom, where Sam was lying back on the bed reading through one of the magazines that had been left on the nightstand over the course of the day.

With the memories of the day fresh in their minds, Sam and Dani came together and held each other until they finally fell asleep in each other's arms. It was a new sensation for them both, but one that they were rapidly coming to appreciate. It was like they never needed to be alone again. They were safe even from their own dreams as long as they had each other.

Of course, that didn't stop dreams from coming. Dani once again found herself hurtling through the darkness toward the moving, shifting rainbow of light. This time Dani didn't try to block it. She embraced it, plunging headlong into it without hesitation and moving through the infinitely swirling colors of endless energy. It was almost like being in the Ghost Zone, but a thousand times more beautiful.

Dani landed on a piece of ground this time in front of a large mob of people. Danielle was standing near the back, leaping into the air to get a good look at a stage up again and shouting at the top of her lungs. On the other side of the crowd, standing on the large stage with a guitar in hand, Dani was stunned to see Ember McLain shouting to the crowd through a microphone.

"Do you want it!?" Ember screamed as her mane of fiery red hair tumbled down her shoulders like a stream of molten lava. The crowd's return roar drowned out any individual response, but their energy was unmistakable. "Then take it babies!" Ember brought her hand down to her guitar, launching into a vicious riff that sent the place into a frenzy. Dani remained silent, having never seen Ember like this before. With pale white skin accented by her black makeup and clothing, fiery red hair, and deep emerald green eyes, she looked... human. As human as a punk rocker ever did, anyway.

As Ember went into her song, a pulse-pounding series of riffs and defiant screams, Dani turned her attention to Danielle, who was still trying to push her way into the crowd closer to the stage. "Move it! We're not all giants you know!"

Dani took a deep breath and walked up behind her. "Maybe I could help."

Danielle whirled around, then her eyes went wide and her jaw fell open. "You! I knew I saw something earlier! I knew it!" Danielle jabbed an accusing finger at her. "But nnnnnooooo Tucker wouldn't believe me! Now I can prove it! Tucker! Tucker!" She tried to call him, but the music and the crowd were way too loud.

"Hey, I don't know what's going on, or how long I have this time. I want to talk to you." Dani moved closer to the significantly smaller girl. It was strange, since they had the same body. Danielle looked like she'd barely aged since they first met, while Dani's body had matured significantly since then, already caught up to her original Danny Fenton body.

"Alright, let's talk. Let's start with 'who the heck are you and why do you look like me?'" Danielle glared.

"Fair enough. I'm Danny. Danny Fenton, from Amity Park."

"He wasn't a girl!"

"It's a long story, and I don't know if I have time to tell it right now. Just please, answer one question. What is this place? What's going on here?"

"That's two questions," Danielle pointed out. "But fine. This place is called Eternity, it's where the dead go when they're dead. Not when they're alive, when they're dead."

"Geeze, you don't have to be a smart-aleck about it." Dani smirked.

Danielle ignored that remark. "And as for what's going on, you're distracting me from Ember's concert!" Danielle turned back to the crowd. "If these stupid people will get out of my way so I can see anything! You hear me, stupid people!?" She kicked at the shins of one of the taller guys in the back, but he kicked one foot back, knocking her to her butt outside the crowd. "Oof! Hey!"

"I said I can help." Dani walked up behind Danielle and put her arms under her armpits to heft her up onto her shoulders.

"Aw yeah! Here we go!" Danielle laughed in victory. "You won't stop me now, stupid people!" Dani smiled and walked up to join the crowd, letting Danielle dance on her shoulders to the driving beats of Ember's guitar. She didn't have all the answers she wanted, but at least Danielle was enjoying herself now.

She stayed the entire concert, but it felt like only a few moments before her eyes fluttered open to find herself once again lying in bed beside Sam, with the sunlight filtering in through the porthole above them. Sam continued to sleep peacefully on her stomach after rolling to the other side of the bed in the middle of the night, her raven-colored hair hanging down around her face in an untamed mess.

Careful not to disturb Sam, Dani slid off the bed and made her way into the bathroom, where she leaned against the sink and stared into the well-polished mirror. The face that stared back was one that she'd gotten used to, but still felt eerie and alien to her. For a long time, she stared into her own eyes, searching for any trace of the ever-shifting lights of the place Danielle had called Eternity. But she couldn't see them. She knew they'd been there a long time ago though... what did it mean? Were the dreams real?

Were all of the ghosts really still out there somewhere?

Dani's gaze was drawn to the side when she saw Sam enter the bathroom behind her reflected in the mirror, her fluffy bathrobe hanging loose around her pale body as she walked up behind her. "Good morning." Sam hugged her from the side. "You're looking zoned."

"I had the dream again," Dani confessed. "This time I got to talk to Danielle. She said they were in a place called 'Eternity', where the souls of the dead go after they die." She smirked. "Not before they die, after they die."

"Well, naturally." Sam smirked back.

"I think the dreams are real, Sam. I think they're really out there somewhere."

"But it doesn't make sense." Sam shook her head. "Why would you be able to see them? And why would it only happen now? Nothing's changed in the last two days." Sam slid her arms up to Dani's shoulders and turned her around so that they were face-to-face. "I think you miss them. And that's okay. But don't let it distract you from us. This is our time, Dani. This is our time to celebrate 'us'."

"Yeah. You're right." Dani shook her head. "There's no reason for it... it's just stress."

"Mmm. I know one good way to relieve stress." Sam smiled and slipped her arms around Dani's shoulders. "I think it's time for a shower."

* * *

Dani leaned against the side of the yacht in the bright orange light of the evening sun, staring down at the tranquil ocean waters as they lapped against the side of the hull. The gentle swaying of the boat was almost comforting, though her mind refused to be comforted. Thoughts of her dream the night before kept sneaking into her waking mind. It had seemed too real. Danielle couldn't have just been an illusion. But what else could it have been? 

She shook her head and turned away from the railing of the ship, watching Sam knock a volleyball through the air with a couple of others who had set up a game on the middle deck of the massive yacht. It looked like she would be busy for a while, so Dani turned to walk along the edge of the boat, letting one hand slide across the rail as she went. She watched the other couples sitting together or participating in various activities, laughing and smiling together. Dani wanted to be like that with Sam now... but she couldn't tear her mind away from Danielle and the others. Just dreams, she told herself. They had to be just dreams.

She gasped when she accidentally bumped into another man walking in the opposite direction. His wine spilled across the deck in front of him as he stumbled. "Oh, geeze. I'm sorry. I should have been watching where I was going."

"Hey, no worries. It's free." The man laughed and slapped one meaty hand into Dani's back, nearly knocking her off the side of the ship. "What are you doing wandering around alone on a cruise liner like this? Where's your husband?"

"Oh..." Dani hesitated for a moment. "He's getting us something to drink." She blushed. She wasn't sure how anyone would react to her telling them she was married to a girl. And she didn't want to cause any trouble.

"Ah, of course. A drink to take the edge off is always nice, and you look like you could use it. Relax, this is a pleasure cruise! You're bringing down the atmosphere!" He moved to slap her back again, but Dani dodged back. The man only laughed again. "Nice reflexes!" He moved past her with his empty wine glass, his laughter echoing out across the ocean.

"That was just weird." Dani shook her head and looked down at the wine spill on the floor. Reflected in the shimmering liquid, she could see a glimmer of shifting colors. Dani looked up at the clear evening sky, then back down at the liquid. The lights continued to shimmer against its shallow surface. Just an optical illusion, Dani realized.

She sighed and leaned her back against the rail again, turning her head to look over her shoulder across the brilliant blue ocean. The salty sea air swept across her body as a swift wind whipped across the deck of the ship. Strange, Dani thought. It seemed to come out of nowhere. Looking up, Dani saw dark storm clouds floating over them from over the ship, gathering across the sky. Her eyes narrowed when she saw a light flash across the dark clouds... a light of gold and silver.

"Cheese!" Sam suddenly lurched into her shoulder from the side as a camera flashed in front of Dani.

"Gyah!" Dani yelped and stumbled in surprise while Sam laughed and took the camera from a woman who was standing in front of her.

"Thanks, I couldn't pass up a photo-op like that." Sam smiled at the woman. The woman smiled and waved before turning to head off on her own way. Sam chuckled and moved to lean against the rail beside Dani. In a moment she laughed and held up the camera. "Check this out, you're so spooked I'm surprised you didn't wet yourself."

Dani chuckled half-heartedly. "Yeah, that's great Sam."

Sam huffed and lowered the camera. "Are you going to spend the rest of our honeymoon moping?"

"I'm not moping. I'm thinking."

Sam shook her head. "Dani, please stay with me here. I'm trying to have a good time with you. It doesn't mean anything if I have a good time and you're not with me."

"So I'm not allowed to think of anything but you?" Dani asked.

"No, but you shouldn't just wander off and leave me in the middle of our honeymoon." Sam slammed the camera into her chest roughly. "This trip is about us coming together as a family, Dani. We can't do that if you refuse to do anything with me and wander off alone."

"You know, yelling at me isn't going to make me any more inclined to spend time with you," Dani spoke as calmly as she could, but she knew a trace of venom leaked into it.

"Fine." Sam nodded, putting her hands on her hips. "When you feel like being a family, I'll be waiting in our room. Alone." Without another word she turned to head back inside the boat, leaving Dani leaning against the rail with the camera clutched in both hands.

With a sigh Dani turned the camera upright. It was already on, with the picture from moments ago displayed on the monitor. Dani turned it back one picture, to a shot of Sam giving a peace sign with the other volleyball players she'd been playing with. Another click back had Sam with another group of people, again with Dani nowhere in sight. Another picture back was a picture of Sam leaning against a rail with the ocean behind her... alone.

Going back through all the photos of the day, she couldn't find any pictures of herself. Only Sam, doing things by herself or with strangers. Her heart sank and she lowered the camera to her side. She hadn't even noticed. She'd spent the day hovering around Sam, but not actually doing anything with her. The only picture taken the entire day with Dani in it was the one from a few minutes ago.

Dani smiled slightly as she looked at it, but her smile faded slowly. One of her fingers reached up and ran across the picture, over her own eyes. They were glowing. It was nearly invisible, but she could still see it. Soft, muted colors that were woven together, as if moving around each other, trapped in the depths of Dani's eyes.

"What does it mean?" Dani stared at the picture for a moment, then looked up and turned to head down deeper into the ship. She rushed through the hallways toward her room, stopping outside of it with the camera in hand. She reached for the doorknob, but suddenly stopped herself. Sam was already angry, bringing up the dream now could make things worse. It wouldn't hurt to take a peak and see what she was doing.

After a quick check around the hallway, Dani turned invisible and intangible to float through the door, looking around his room undetected. He found Sam sitting on the thick, comfortable bed with a picture of Dani in her lap, looking down at it with a strange expression on her face. It looked like sadness, with a trace of desperation lingering in her violet eyes.

Dani could have dealt with seeing her angry. But seeing Sam like this almost broke her heart. "Maybe mom was right..." Sam sighed softly, running a hand down the picture. "Too young, too early..."

"No. She wasn't." Dani turned visible and landed on the floor. Sam looked up in surprise.

"You... you have the nerve to spy on me during our honeymoon!?" Sam growled.

"I'm sorry." Dani approached the bed. Sam moved to scramble away from her, but Dani caught her ankle, pulling her closer.

"Dani, I'm not in the mood. I mean it! I-" Sam stopped short when she was pulled close to Dani, who ran a finger under her chin.

"I'm sorry, Sam. For everything. I know I still have a lot to learn about love. I know I can mess up and I know I HAVE messed up." Dani sat down on the edge of the bed beside Sam, who sat up to listen to what she had to say. "But I want to learn. I want to be a better husband... wife... thing... and I want to do everything I can to make you happy. And I am so; so sorry I hurt you today. I promise, it won't happen again."

"Words don't mean squat without actions to back them up." Sam narrowed her eyes.

"Which is why I intend to spend the rest of the week focusing completely on you. On us." Dani took one of Sam's hands in her own. "I love you, Sam. Give me another chance."

Sam looked down at their hands, then up into her eyes with a slight smile. "Okay. Let's make this thing work."

Dani smiled and scooted closer to her. "Do you know what I've been wanting to do since we got here?"

"Hmmmm?" Sam hummed and leaned against her side.

"Kick your butt back to Amity Park at Mortal Kombat."

Sam grinned. "You're on."

* * *

The evening came without any lovemaking, but with no less of a connection between the two of them. Things got strained, but they knew from the beginning there would be arguments. Despite that, now they lay together in each other's arms and the embrace of the night. And in the embrace of the night, as they always did, dreams flooded into their minds. 

Dani found herself standing in the rainbow realm once again, staring straight at Danielle, who was lying on her back staring into the swirling vortex of colors that made up the world around them. The instant Dani appeared Danielle's head turned to look over at her, a smile coming to her lips.

"I knew you'd be here soon. This is the same time you came the last two days." Danielle sat up. "Thanks for helping me watch the concert. I was seriously about to get ticked off."

"No problem." Dani approached and plopped down on her butt beside Danielle. "So, now that you're not busy, maybe you could shed some more light on this place. Where it is. Who's here."

"Well, like I said, this is Eternity, and I guess everyone's here. We only meet the people we want to run into, so I don't know everyone who lives here."

"The people you want to run into?" Dani looked at her curiously.

"Yeah. Like, if you want to see Tucker, you think about that and start walking. If he wouldn't mind seeing you too, then you'll find him. If he doesn't want to see you, you'll search forever and not find anything." Dani smiled. "It's actually pretty nice. There are no bullies or criminals. All I see are friends. We have lots of fun together."

"I'm glad to hear it." Dani looked around her. Their tiny island was the only one that seemed to exist. "So this is the afterlife... but what's bringing me here?" Dani looked at Danielle again. "I'm asleep, but I don't think this is a dream. And I always seem to come here right where you are. Is there some kind of connection between us?"

"Well, that is my body you're in, isn't it?" Danielle looked her up and down. "I wish I could've stuck around long enough to become that sexy."

"Yes... it is." Dani blinked. "Of course! When I found your body your eyes were glowing just like this place. Just like Eternity." Dani stood and walked to the edge of the small island, which apparently didn't notice her enough to create a new island like it would have for anyone else. "Because the eyes are the window into the soul... which means your soul here is still connected to your body back home, which is my body!"

"Whoa. Headache." Danielle groaned and clutched her head.

Dani continued, excited to finally be making some headway. "It makes sense! That's why I'm coming here when I sleep, the connection between your soul and my body is drawing my consciousness here with you!" Dani blinked. "That must also be why Athena's spell called in that rainbow when she showed me the Reality Gems... it was the essence of Eternity, drawn from YOUR mind!"

"If all this weird stuff is true... why are you only coming here now?" Danielle cocked her head to the side. "Shouldn't you have started coming when you first got my body?"

"The only things that changed recently are that I got married and got on that boat." Dani stroked her chin in confusion. "I don't think either of those things could trigger something like this. There must still be a piece missing."

"Well, whatever it is..." Danielle walked up behind her and gave her a tight hug around the waist. "I'm glad to see you again."

Dani smiled and wrapped one arm around Danielle's torso, holding her close. "Yeah. It's good to see you too. Do you think, next time I come, I could see Tucker? And Valerie?"

"I'll have them waiting for you, cousin." Danielle smiled broadly. Dani smiled back and patted her head, about to say thank you when she felt the bright sting of the sun shining directly in her eyes.

Dani groaned and rolled away from the light, but it was too late. She was already awake. She sat up on the bed and looked over to see Sam still sleeping on her back, her head framed by her raven-colored hair and her arms lying in random position around her body. With a smile, Dani crawled closer to her, gently brushing a couple of hairs out of her beautiful, porcelain-esque face.

Dani leaned down and pressed her lips to Sam's as a pair of fingers brushed the soft skin of her cheek. It was a few moments before she felt Sam's lips press back against hers, and several minutes more before Dani pulled back.

"I could become a morning person if I woke up like that every day." Sam smiled.

"Come on." Dani took both of her hands and pulled her up to a sitting position. "We have a long day ahead of us. And this time, we're going to spend every second of it together."

* * *

True to her word, Dani spent the entire day by Sam's side. Anything Sam wanted to do, Dani was right there. And whenever Dani made a suggestion, they did that too. Her spirits were lifted immensely by the idea of seeing Tucker again. She never told Sam this, of course. Sam wouldn't believe it anyway, and might even get upset again if she knew anything other than herself was on Dani's mind. Even Dani still wasn't convinced it was really happening. But in her mind, the evidence seemed undeniable. 

As day wound down to evening, they made their way back toward their room, their hands clasped together. Their laughter echoed down the hallways of the yacht as they stumbled into the walls, barely able to stand.

"Is someone ramming the side of the ship?" Sam laughed.

"No, I think that's just you." Dani giggled. "I told you we shouldn't have had any of that wine. But who listens to the ghost kid anymore? Nobody ever listens to me since the ghosts all went kerflooey."

"Oh come on. Where's your sense of adventure?" Sam grabbed at the doorknob to their room and slipped it open, moving back with it with her back straight against it, her chest pushed out and a sly smile on her face. "Mmmm. Do you feel like going kerflooey as much as I do?"

"Depends on what the word means." Dani moved to enter the room, facing Sam. Sam grabbed the front of her loose tie-dye shirt and pulled her close into a deep, sensual kiss that explained the meaning of Sam's word quite well. After thinking for less than a second, Dani decided not to argue and they retreated into the privacy of their private cabin, slamming the door shut behind them.

So their day ended lying in each other's arms, holding each other close. Their eyes were closed, their lips curled into a pair of gentle smiles as their sweat-drenched bodies lay intertwined. Dani's racing mind and heart, at last, calmed enough to let her slip into sleep, and into the embrace of the rainbow realm... or so she'd thought.

She awakened hours later without any sign of it, with only the hazy memories that usually followed after her dreams. She sat up in her bed, putting a hand to her head. What happened? Why hadn't she gone to see Danielle again? Nothing had changed.

Her eyes shifted up from the bed to the porthole, where the rain clouds from two days ago were visible on the horizon away from them. In fact, she couldn't see the sun anymore. But it had been shining in the window the last few days... had the ship changed direction? Of course... the ship was moving.

Dani glanced over at Sam, who continued to sleep peacefully on her side of the bed, curled up in the thick blankets. Dani's body flashed with light as it shifted into its ghostly form, then she floated up and straight through the ceiling, heading out the top of the ship. Her body turned invisible before anyone could see her, and she moved down toward the bridge, where the captain was talking with several other crewmembers.

Dani phased through the wall of the bridge, looking down at the consoles in front of her. She could see several electronic maps and sea charts on screens in front of her, which were showing the boat's course over the last few days. The boat had left from Orchid Bay, and floated a few miles offshore for the last few days. Yesterday afternoon the boat had pulled away from the city to head toward Hawaii, where it was scheduled to dock in three days.

"Orchid Bay..." Dani muttered and lifted her hand to the screen, touching her palm over the small city on the Florida coast. "That's the last piece."

"Did you hear something?" The captain of the boat demanded.

"No, sir. Nothing." One of his crewmen replied. Dani looked back at them, then plunged back down through the deck of the ship, making her way back to her room through the hallways. She could have gone directly there, but that would involve going through other peoples' rooms. And she knew what people usually did on this kind of cruise. She was happy just sharing it with Sam without seeing countless strangers that way.

She floated into her bedroom and landed on the floor, letting her body shift back into her human form. Immediately she realized that Sam was gone from the bed, but when she looked up she noticed Sam standing in the door of the bathroom with her bathrobe hanging loosely around her body.

Sam waved, smiling around the handle of a toothbrush that hung out of her lips. She removed the toothbrush in a moment. "Decide to go for a walk?"

Dani shook her head. "We need to go back."

"What? Back? Back where?"

"Back to Orchid Bay." Dani opened her suitcase and pulled out her usual street clothes, a pair of blue jeans and a white tank top with a red circle on the front of the chest. "Whatever's been happening to me is coming from something in that city. I know it is. And I want to find out what it is."

"Are you serious? You want to just leave in the middle of our honeymoon chasing after some dream?"

"It's not a dream!" Dani snapped back. "Darnit Sam, why can't you trust me here!? You know strange things can happen, you've seen them. Why would I be lying about this?"

"I'm not saying you're lying, I'm saying you could be wrong." Sam approached her with an annoyed expression on her face. "The ghosts are gone, Dani. Along with Tucker, and Valerie, and everyone else who was a ghost. We can't bring them back."

"If there might be a chance we can, don't we owe it to them to try?" Dani asked.

"You're talking about destroying the natural order of the universe. Even if we could, SHOULD we?" Dani looked away from her. "The Ghost Zone was one thing, because we thought that was the afterlife... but you're talking about actually trying to destroy the natural world as we know it in favor of your vision of paradise." Sam narrowed her eyes. "No matter who suffers for it. Sound familiar?"

Dani blinked, unable to meet her gaze. "I don't want to destroy anything... I just want to see them again. That's all. Just to see them. Is that wrong?"

Sam placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and raised her other hand to her cheek, bringing her gaze up to meet Sam's. Her deep violet eyes were gentle, as was her voice. "No. It's not."

"Then please." Dani took Sam's hand off of her cheek and held it tightly in her hand. "Come with me. Help me find a way to see them. This is important to me." Dani clutched Sam's hand in both of hers. "Please."

Sam stared into her eyes for a few minutes, then pulled her hand out of Dani's, raising her right hand to stroke the gold wedding ring that hadn't been removed for the last several days. "Okay, Dani. I'll come with you. But you owe me another cruise... and a hundred breakfasts in bed."

Dani grinned. "It's a deal." She kissed Sam deeply on the lips, wrapping her arms around her torso. "Thank you so much."

"Yeah, yeah." Sam smiled and pushed her away. "Let's at least get dressed and take showers first. We can't be wandering around a city like this." Sam turned to head back into the bathroom, stuffing her toothbrush back into her mouth as she went.

Dani sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, watching her go. How many women would willingly cut their honeymoon short just because their spouse had a psychotic episode? Sam was one in a million, and Dani felt like the luckiest person in the world to have her. And with Sam's help, she could find the secret that could lead to Tucker, Valerie, Danielle, and all of the other ghosts. A secret that lay somewhere in Orchid Bay.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Orchid Bay seems like a sleepy, peaceful town on the Florida coastline, but deeper research proves that the town definitely has its share of secrets. Can Dani unlock those deepest secrets to truly find her friends again? Also, Sam has an identity crisis after she realizes just how much she's changed since she and Danny got together as a couple so long ago.

Episode 15: The Eyes of Eternity Part 2


	15. The Eyes of Eternity Part 2

(Note: "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" is owned by Cartoon Network. The first section is a recap of Episode 14. If you read it already, scroll down until you see "Episode 15: The Eyes of Eternity Part 2") 

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

With another yawn Dani closed her eyes, and almost instantly drifted off to sleep. The night embraced her, and seemed to be dragging her away from her body. In fact, she felt like she couldn't even feel her body anymore. For a long time she sat in the darkness with confusion dominating her mind, but at last she saw something coming toward her in the distance. It was a rainbow of energy, an infinite number of colors swirling and coalescing around one another. Always moving in an intricate, but impossibly random pattern.

Dani gasped and covered her face with her arms as the energy washed over her body like a tidal wave, engulfing her in a feeling she'd never known before. Slowly she lowered her arms, and gasped in shock when she saw a figure standing in front of her. The girl before her was sitting on the ground playing a handheld video game, yelling to the empty energy around her in excitement and frustration.

Slowly her fingers stopped moving on the controls and her eyes lifted from the small screen. She stared straight into Dani's eyes, looking as stunned as Dani felt to be seeing her two lost friends standing right here in front of her. She opened her mouth to speak, but when she spoke it wasn't Danielle's voice that came out.

"Dani! Wake up!" Sam's voice jerked Dani back to consciousness in the dark bedroom. He could see Sam's concerned expression peering down at him, her face illuminated by the porthole in the side of the ship that was directly over their bed.

* * *

Dani slipped her hands behind her head with a contented sigh. Her mind was racing now, thinking about so many things she could barely contain them. Most of her thoughts turned to Sam, but from somewhere in the back of her mind the rainbow realm from the night before crept to the forefront. The colors swirled around each other through the recesses of her mind, as if seeking something. It was like she'd forgotten something... was the rainbow somehow familiar? She couldn't remember. 

"Dani?" Dani snapped back to reality when she heard Sam's voice. Sam was sitting on the bed beside her, wearing a thick, luxurious bathrobe covering her squeaky clean flesh with her hair matted wetly to her forehead. She stared deeply into Dani's eyes, her violet orbs flicking back and forth between each of Dani's until it seemed like she wanted to pluck them out and eat them.

"Wh... whaaaat?" Dani blushed. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"I wanted to see what you were thinking." Sam smiled. "The eyes are the window to the soul, after all."

"The eyes..." Dani stared at her for a moment, something flaring in the back of her mind. Suddenly her mind was thrown back several weeks to the Guys in White headquarters, where she'd first found Danielle's body.

Danny reached up slowly with one hand and placed his fingers against her cheek. It was warm to the touch. He wasn't sure why he expected it to be cold and lifeless, Agent Windsbury had told him she was still alive. Just asleep for a very long time. He moved his hand to her lips, feeling her steady breath brushing against the palm of his hand before he moved his hands up to her closed eyes, placing a hand over each eye. Gently he pried them apart, and stepped back in shock.

* * *

"Hey, I don't know what's going on, or how long I have this time. I want to talk to you." Dani moved closer to the significantly smaller girl. It was strange, since they had the same body. Danielle looked like she'd barely aged since they first met, while Dani's body had matured significantly since then, already caught up to her original Danny Fenton body. 

"Alright, let's talk. Let's start with 'who the heck are you and why do you look like me?'" Danielle glared.

"Fair enough. I'm Danny. Danny Fenton, from Amity Park."

"He wasn't a girl!"

"It's a long story, and I don't know if I have time to tell it right now. Just please, answer one question. What is this place? What's going on here?"

"That's two questions," Danielle pointed out. "But fine. This place is called Eternity, it's where the dead go when they're dead. Not when they're alive, when they're dead."

* * *

"Cheese!" Sam suddenly lurched into her shoulder from the side as a camera flashed in front of Dani. 

"Gyah!" Dani yelped and stumbled in surprise while Sam laughed and took the camera from a woman who was standing in front of her.

"Thanks, I couldn't pass up a photo-op like that." Sam smiled at the woman. The woman smiled and waved before turning to head off on her own way. Sam chuckled and moved to lean against the rail beside Dani. In a moment she laughed and held up the camera. "Check this out, you're so spooked I'm surprised you didn't wet yourself."

Dani chuckled half-heartedly. "Yeah, that's great Sam."

Sam huffed and lowered the camera. "Are you going to spend the rest of our honeymoon moping?"

"I'm not moping. I'm thinking."

Sam shook her head. "Dani, please stay with me here. I'm trying to have a good time with you. It doesn't mean anything if I have a good time and you're not with me."

"So I'm not allowed to think of anything but you?" Dani asked.

"No, but you shouldn't just wander off and LEAVE ME in the middle of our honeymoon." Sam slammed the camera into her chest roughly. "This trip is about us coming together as a family, Dani. We can't do that if you refuse to do anything with me and wander off alone."

"You know, yelling at me isn't going to make me any more inclined to spend time with you," Dani spoke as calmly as she could, but she knew a trace of venom leaked into it.

"Fine." Sam nodded, putting her hands on her hips. "When you feel like being a family, I'll be waiting in our room. Alone." Without another word she turned to head back inside the boat, leaving Dani leaning against the rail with the camera clutched in both hands.

* * *

After a quick check around the hallway, Dani turned invisible and intangible to float through the door, looking around his room undetected. He found Sam sitting on the thick, comfortable bed with a picture of Dani in her lap, looking down at it with a strange expression on her face. It looked like sadness, with a trace of desperation lingering in her violet eyes. 

Dani could have dealt with seeing her angry. But seeing Sam like this almost broke her heart. "Maybe mom was right..." Sam sighed softly to herself, running a hand down the picture. "Too young, too early..."

"No. She wasn't." Dani turned visible and landed on the floor. Sam looked up in surprise.

"You... you have the nerve to spy on me during our honeymoon!?" Sam growled.

"I'm sorry." Dani approached the bed. Sam moved to scramble away from her, but Dani caught her ankle, pulling her closer.

"Dani, I'm not in the mood. I mean it! I-" Sam stopped short when she was pulled close to Dani, who ran a finger under her chin.

"I'm sorry, Sam. For everything. I know I still have a lot to learn about love. I know I can mess up and I know I HAVE messed up." Dani sat down on the edge of the bed beside Sam, who sat up to listen to what she had to say. "But I want to learn. I want to be a better husband... wife... thing... and I want to do everything I can to make you happy. And I am so; so sorry I hurt you today. I promise, it won't happen again."

* * *

"Well, that is my body you're in, isn't it?" Danielle looked her up and down. "I wish I could've stuck around long enough to become that sexy." 

"Yes... it is." Dani blinked. "Of course! When I found your body your eyes were glowing just like this place. Just like Eternity." Dani stood and walked to the edge of the small island, which apparently didn't notice her enough to create a new island like it would have for anyone else. "Because the eyes are the window into the soul... which means your soul here is still connected to your body back home, which is my body!"

"Whoa. Headache." Danielle groaned and clutched her head.

Dani continued, excited to finally be making some headway. "It makes sense! That's why I'm coming here when I sleep, the connection between your soul and my body is drawing my consciousness here with you!" Dani blinked. "That must also be why Athena's spell called in that rainbow when she showed me the Reality Gems... it was the essence of Eternity, drawn from YOUR mind!"

"If all this weird stuff is true... why are you only coming here now?" Danielle cocked her head to the side. "Shouldn't you have started coming when you first got my body?"

"The only things that changed recently are that I got married and got on that boat." Dani stroked her chin in confusion. "I don't think either of those things could trigger something like this. There must still be a piece missing."

* * *

Dani phased through the wall of the bridge, looking down at the consoles in front of her. She could see several electronic maps and sea charts on screens in front of her, which were showing the boat's course over the last few days. The boat had left from Orchid Bay, and floated a few miles offshore for the last few days. Yesterday afternoon the boat had pulled away from the city to head toward Hawaii, where it was scheduled to dock in three days. 

"Orchid Bay..." Dani muttered and lifted her hand to the screen, touching her palm over the small city on the Florida coast. "That's the last piece."

* * *

Sam waved, smiling around the handle of a toothbrush that hung out of her lips. She removed the toothbrush in a moment. "Decide to go for a walk?" 

Dani shook her head. "We need to go back."

"What? Back? Back where?"

"Back to Orchid Bay." Dani opened her suitcase and pulled out her usual street clothes, a pair of blue jeans and a white tank top with a red circle on the front of the chest. "Whatever's been happening to me is coming from something in that city. I know it is. And I want to find out what it is."

"Are you serious? You want to just leave in the middle of our honeymoon chasing after some dream?"

"It's not a dream!" Dani snapped back. "Darnit Sam, why can't you trust me here!? You know strange things can happen, you've seen them. Why would I be lying about this?"

"I'm not saying you're lying, I'm saying you could be wrong." Sam approached her with an annoyed expression on her face. "The ghosts are gone, Dani. Along with Tucker, and Valerie, and everyone else who was a ghost. We can't bring them back."

"If there might be a chance we can, don't we owe it to them to try?" Dani asked.

"You're talking about destroying the natural order of the universe. Even if we could, SHOULD we?" Dani looked away from her. "The Ghost Zone was one thing, because we thought that was the afterlife... but you're talking about actually trying to destroy the natural world as we know it in favor of your vision of paradise." Sam narrowed her eyes. "No matter who suffers for it. Sound familiar?"

Dani blinked, unable to meet her gaze. "I don't want to destroy anything... I just want to see them again. That's all. Just to see them. Is that wrong?"

Sam placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and raised her other hand to her cheek, bringing her gaze up to meet Sam's. Her deep violet eyes were gentle, as was her voice. "No. It's not."

"Then please." Dani took Sam's hand off of her cheek and held it tightly in her hand. "Come with me. Help me find a way to see them. This is important to me." Dani clutched Sam's hand in both of hers. "Please."

Sam stared into her eyes for a few minutes, then pulled her hand out of Dani's, raising her right hand to stroke the gold wedding ring that hadn't been removed for the last several days. "Okay, Dani. I'll come with you. But you owe me another cruise... and a hundred breakfasts in bed."

Dani grinned. "It's a deal." She kissed Sam deeply on the lips, wrapping her arms around her torso. "Thank you so much."

"Yeah, yeah." Sam smiled and pushed her away. "Let's at least get dressed and take showers first. We can't be wandering around a city like this." Sam turned to head back into the bathroom, stuffing her toothbrush back into her mouth as she went.

Dani sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, watching her go. How many women would willingly cut their honeymoon short just because their spouse had a psychotic episode? Sam was one in a million, and Dani felt like the luckiest person in the world to have her. And with Sam's help, she could find the secret that could lead to Tucker, Valerie, Danielle, and all of the other ghosts. A secret that lay somewhere in Orchid Bay.

Episode 15: The Eyes of Eternity Part 2

Orchid Bay was a peaceful city on the East coast of the Unites States, nestled comfortably in central Florida where the weather remained fairly temperate year-round except for the occasional tornado or hurricane. Its past remained shrouded in mystery, and each year this mystery brought many tourists around to see some of the stranger, unexplained sights which included many structures thought to be of alien, or even supernatural, origin. Nobody even knew when the city had been founded. All records dating back that far had long been lost, though there were many local legends on the subject.

At least, that was what the file Sam found on the Orchid Bay Library computer database told her. She'd found many such files, all of which alluded to some grand mystery, but not a single one of which offered an explanation for the sort of phenomenon Dani described. They'd been searching the library ever since they'd flown into town several hours ago, with Sam hunting through the electronic records while Dani ransacked the books, with not a single answer to show for it.

Sam leaned back in her chair and rubbed her eyes with her thumb and forefinger. She'd been looking at the monitor so long her vision was getting fuzzy. It occurred to her that Dani was hallucinating for some reason. Maybe the salty sea air was getting to her brain. But she seemed so sure of this, and Sam didn't have the heart to accuse her of going crazy or, even worse, making the whole thing up to get off the boat.

She logged out of the computer's database and stood from the stiff chair, turning to look around the library. Dani wasn't anywhere in sight, probably still hunting for any mention of Eternity.

Sam turned to look through the books as well, though more for anything interesting than for any kind of special purpose. Looking until she passed out from exhaustion or got too frustrated wouldn't help anyone. So she made her way into the back part of the library, which was where they always kept the Pagan and Goth literature where self-righteous eyes couldn't find them.

Sam chuckled and plucked a book off the wall with the title 'Chicken Soup For The Goth's Soul' with a picture of a pale white woman in a black dress on the cover. She opened it to flip through a few pages out of curiosity, but stopped when she heard someone scoff nearby.

"Poser." She heard the low voice speak.

"Excuse me?" Sam turned to face a young girl, probably only twelve years old in a deep purple T-shirt with a black skull design on it. Her Mexican facial features were almost hidden by pale white makeup and deep purple eyeshadow. Her short hair was combed back from her head to stick up into the air like a wave, and dyed in various shades of purple. "I know you didn't just call me that."

"Don't see any other posers around," The girl replied in a droll voice.

"And why would you call me that? I'm just as much a Goth as you." Sam retorted.

"Oh please." The girl rolled her eyes. "You've been humming this whole time, and you just look so HAPPY. You're practically glowing."

"Well... I just got married. I'm allowed to be happy."

"You got married? Goths don't fall in love and get married. Ours is a lonely existence of sadness and scathing bitterness." The girl shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. "And you call yourself a Goth? It's posers like you who make the rest of us look like posers." She snorted in disgust and turned to walk away from Sam, disappearing down one of the other library isles.

Sam stared after her. "Stupid kid..." She looked down at her left hand, running her fingers over the diamond-studded band on her ring finger. To be honest, she had been feeling different lately. She wasn't sure when she'd last been to the Skulk and Lurk where she used to hang out. She hadn't felt depressed, and she never even watched bloody horror movies anymore. Like the girl said, she'd simply become happy.

Unnerved, Sam turned to wander around the library until she finally spotted Dani sitting in an isle with three piles of books scattered around her. She sat with her legs crossed and a large book perched in her lap while she thumbed through it, her eyes scanning for answers to their current mystery. Sam went down the isle and sat down beside her outside the piles of books, wringing her hands in front of her.

"Hey, Dani?" Sam asked. "Do you think I've changed?"

"Yuh-huh." Dani flipped through another page of her book without looking up.

"Yuh-huh? What the heck does that mean?"

Dani looked up from her book. "It means 'yes' to most people. We've both changed Sam, it happens when you live life. You grow, you change. Some more than others." Dani cupped one of her breasts meaningfully. "You adjust, you get over it, and you move on with life." She turned back to her book.

"Yeah, I know all of that." Sam hugged her knees to her chest. "It's just this girl over there pointed some things out to me. I've changed so much... not just physically, but mentally. It's like I'm not the same person. I don't even see the world the same way anymore. Where I used to see dark, edgy shadows I'm seeing happiness and sunshine and a bright future."

"So you're happy. You're right, that is horrible."

"I'm serious!" Sam frowned. "I used to hate people like me! So optimistic and always seeing the bright side of things."

"Sam, it doesn't matter." Dani looked up again. "You've never cared before what anyone thinks of you, why would you care what they think now?"

Sam blinked, then gasped. "You're right! Something ELSE about me that's changed!"

Dani sighed and shook her head as she turned back to the book. After a few more moments she stopped and reached over the pile of books to grip Sam's shoulder. "Hey, I think I found something." Sam blinked and scooted closer to read over her shoulder.

"One local legend stems from a man's account of opening a vortex that led him to the world beyond the veil of death, a place he called 'Eternity'. The incident is said to have happened in the year 1785 on March 6th, but it was never investigated, and the man's claims were dismissed as the rambling of a lunatic. His account tells a tale of him opening a vortex in what is now Orchid Bay Central Park, into this strange... rainbow-colored world with no solid landmasses..."

"That's exactly what you said." Sam looked at her in surprise. "This is what you saw in your visions."

"It says what he was doing when he found the vortex. Maybe we can recreate the incident." Dani closed the book and stood up. "It's the best lead we've found all day. Come on, let's go check out the central park."

"Alright." Sam stood up, brushing off her skirt and tights. She paused a moment to look down at her clothing, still in shades of violet and black. "Do you think I need a new wardrobe?"

"I think you look fine in whatever you're wearing. Now come on." Dani took her hand and dragged her toward the front of the library, where she checked out the book and left with Sam in tow.

They hurried down the sidewalk, wearing their usual every day clothes. The wind was cool, but not as bitterly cold as it was in the central regions of the U.S. Winter was nearing its end anyway, and soon they would be able to say goodbye to warm dress and hello to bikinis at the beach.

Sam walked with Dani until she spotted something interesting by the side of the road and came to a stop. It was a large clothing outlet that was popular among the rich called Club Banana that catered exclusively to members. Which Sam was, being fairly rich herself. Just inside the windows she could see a wide variety of clothing that went on inside the building as far as she could see. She looked at Dani and gave a sweet smile, cupping her hands in front of her.

Dani sighed and shook her head. "Alright, you go ahead. I'll go to the park and uncover the ultimate forbidden secrets of life and death by myself."

"I'll catch up." Sam waved and turned to head into the store without hesitation, shoving the door open and vanishing inside.

* * *

Dani approached central park alone, clutching the old fashioned tome against her chest with both arms. What a time for Sam to have an early mid-life crisis, she thought to herself. Dani had, of course, noticed a change in Sam a long time ago. She'd changed so much since they first met. No longer the cynical, sarcastic loudmouth, but rather the gentle, caring, and sharp-tongued realist who did believe in things like hope and love. But that didn't mean she expected Sam to change completely. 

She shook her head clear. That was for Sam to decide, and dwelling on it wouldn't accomplish anything. So instead she turned her attention to the book, flipping it open again to the page describing the incident from three hundred years ago. The man had been trying to discover what was in the afterlife for several years before he apparently got it right. Nobody believed him, but Dani didn't think this could be a coincidence.

The ritual he'd used was pretty complex, but thankfully required no preparation besides practice. Dani read it six times to make sure she had it memorized, then set the book down on a nearby bench and walked out in the middle of the nearest clearing. Her arms rose to her sides and she lifted her hands over her head, taking deep breaths to try to relax her body. When she felt her limbs loosen, she began to move.

Her body moved in a graceful, carefully organized pattern across the ground, her arms weaving intricate patterns through the air in what must have looked like a strange dance to curious onlookers. The chill wind whirled through her clothing as she moved, almost seeming to grow in ferocity with each fluid step she took. She was glad she had her ghost powers to keep her stable, or she would've been on her butt right at the beginning.

The dance ended with her standing on one foot with her arms stretched out to one side as far as she could go. She didn't see anything happening, so she launched into the dance again, spinning right into the beginning and going through the whole thing. She had to make this work. She wouldn't give up until something happened. So her body continued to move with the silent rhythm set forth by the book.

Completing the dance a second time didn't do anything, so she began again. Then a fourth time when nothing happened. Her eyes closed and her mind began to clear, trying to put all of her focus and concentration into it. In her mind she could see Danielle sitting on her tiny island amid the endlessly swirling mist-like colors of Eternity. Danielle looked up suddenly, her eyes going unfocused as she stared into the distance.

Dani watched from the mist as Danielle climbed to her feet, the swirling energy pools of Eternity floating around her body as her arms rose to her sides. Dani could feel something flowing through her own body in time with the energy that floated around Danielle. She could feel it moving through her body, down her arms to her fingertips. When she opened her eyes she saw her hands glowing with brilliant multicolored energy that left trails through the air before her.

She didn't stop her dance, pulling the light trails through the air with her graceful movements. She gently leapt from the ground, floating through the air in a slow spin while the lights made a ring around her, then moved both of her hands forward. The light that floated in the air converged in front of her, combining and growing into a large portal that shined with powerful, coalescing energy.

"I did it." Dani stepped forward. The hairs on her arms and neck stood on end, as if a powerful electrical field was materializing around her. "But does this lead to Eternity?"

She moved closer to the portal. The energy flowing in the air around her grew harsher, until it felt like there was a constant static surge rushing through her body. Her forward movement stopped when she heard a soft hiss from the portal, a jarring sound that sent a cold chill rushing down her spine. Dani stepped back slowly, but she barely had time to react when something shot out of the portal.

Her shriek split the air and those few people within earshot turned to scream at the sight of a massive coiled python with a set of vicious claws slamming her into the ground. Its long, dripping fangs plunged into her shoulder as its scrawny, but powerful arms held her wrists on the ground. Dani gasped in pain as the creature pulled away from her, its fangs now dripping with her blood.

Dani tried to struggle, but her body refused to cooperate. She could feel something spreading through her body from the inside. It wasn't the energy she'd felt before. It was something else that kept her from moving.

The creature let out a bloodcurdling hiss that sounded more like a roar than a sound a serpent should make. Its head thrust down again, but Dani's body suddenly went intangible, and its fangs buried themselves deeply in the ground behind her. With much effort Dani rolled to the side and tried to crawl away from the creature once she became tangible again, but her entire body was shaking. She didn't even have the strength to drag herself across the now-abandoned park.

The creature's hideous shriek made her look back to see it looming tall right behind her, its fangs glistening with a mixture of blood and venom. Its head came down as quick at a bullet, but something else leapt between them even quicker, a blurred limb slamming into the top of the creature's head hard enough to bury it straight into the ground like a nail being driven into a plank of wood. Its body thrashed through the air for a moment before it fell limp to the ground.

A girl stood up at more normal speed, her fists clenched. It was a young Asian girl, wearing a green belly-shirt and a pair of thick jeans. When she turned to look back at Dani she had freckles dotting her nose and cheeks, but her most distinguishing feature was a stripe of red hair that went all the way down to her waist alongside her otherwise pitch-black mane.

She stood looking down at Dani with her arms crossed over her chest as one foot tapped the ground between them. "So just how stupid do you have to be to summon a Pyckash Demon in the middle of the park?"

Dani wanted to respond, but her body wouldn't move. When she didn't respond, the Asian girl's eyes grew concerned and she knelt down beside her. "Hey, you didn't get bitten, did you?" She grabbed Dani's shoulders and looked her over, soon spotting the wound on her shoulder. "Okay, relax, let's get you out of here." She cradled Dani in her arms and stood up as Dani's vision began to fade.

* * *

Sam stood in front of the body length mirror in the clothing store, holding an umbrella over one shoulder with her other hand resting on her hip. She was wearing a pair of low-rise jeans with a bright yellow top with a sun on the front, which covered little more than the meat of her breasts, leaving her cleavage and the bottom of her curves almost completely exposed. On her feet were a pair of white cowboy boots to complete the cowgirl image. "Nah." 

Sam stood in front of the mirror in a modest blue dress that went from her neck to her knees, with a pair of matching slippers on her feet. "Too girly."

Sam stood in front of the mirror in a black sweater that covered the length of her arms but left her belly exposed, and a pair of wide cargo pants that held tight around the boots on her feet. "Kimstyle? Nah."

Sam stood in front of the mirror in a sheer blue negligee with a matching pair of bra and panties underneath, standing with both hands on her hips and a thoughtful look on her face. "In public? Heck no. But... Dani would probably like it." She grinned and decided to save that one.

Disheartened, Sam went back into the main shopping area after dressing in her standard black top and plaid skirt combination and the negligee tucked into a box under her arm. She couldn't find a single outfit that she was comfortable in. She didn't want to keep wearing her old stuff, she felt fake trying to be the person that she was a year ago. She wasn't, and it was time for her appearance to reflect that.

Of course, if she wasn't a Goth, she had to ask herself one question. Who was she now? Thinking long and hard, she really wasn't sure. She wasn't very depressed, but she still hated light colors. She still didn't care what anyone thought of her, and she still liked to be edgy, but she liked to be optimistic about the future and enjoy the life she was building with Dani. Who was optimistic and hated light colors at the same time?

With a sigh she resigned herself to languish in limbo for a bit, but suddenly she saw a single outfit on the rack nearby that looked so out of place and perfect for how she felt that she knew it had to be hers. So she bought it and slipped it on in the dressing room, then bought a long brown trench coat to go over it so she could surprise Dani. She couldn't wait to see his face.

She emerged from the Club Banana and made her way down the sidewalk toward the park, where Dani had said she was going. She made quick work of the distance, but when she got there she didn't see Dani. Instead she saw groups of people chattering amongst each other in frantic, concerned tones. That couldn't bode well for Dani's welfare, but she couldn't make out what they were saying because they were speaking so fast.

Sam wandered into the park, hugging the coat tighter around her against the chill wind that swept through the park. The sound of pages rustling drew her gaze to a nearby park bench, where she saw a book lying open. With a growing sense of certainty and dread, Sam approached the book to flip it closed. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw that it was the one Dani had checked out from the library.

"Darnit, Dani." Sam picked up the book and hugged it to her chest. "Where did you go now?"

Her eyes went wide when she heard a soft sound like a hiss behind her, which grew louder with every passing second. Slowly she turned with the book clutched to her chest. The breath caught in her throat as her eyes slid up the long, sinuous form of a giant serpent, which stood taller than her with just half of its body up off the ground. A pair of thin claws extended from its coiled body as it opened its fanged mouth, and venom dripped to the grass below.

Sam didn't even have time to scream before it lunged.

* * *

Dani found herself standing on the edge of a small island, floating once again in the multicolored brilliance of Eternity's endlessly swirling energy. She stared out into the empty space, then looked back toward the middle of the tiny island to see Danielle kneeling down on the ground, holding her head with both hands. 

"Danielle!" Dani rushed to her side and knelt down, gripping her shoulders. "Danielle! What happened?"

Danielle groaned and lifted her head to look up at her warily. "I don't know. For a second it was like something was moving through me. It was too much... oohhh, my head hurts so bad."

"It's okay." Dani gulped. The visions she'd seen while performing the dance... had they done this to Danielle? She made a note to be careful what she did if she could accidentally cause this. "Listen, just try to relax. I think I'm getting close to a way to get you out of here. You and the rest of the ghosts."

"What?" Danielle looked up, her eyes going wide. "You mean it?"

"I do." Dani smiled. "I just need a little more time."

"That's wonderful!" Danielle wrapped her arms around Dani, grinning happily. "It's so lonely here. I mean, I like my friends, but I miss the world... y'know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Soon. Just hold on and I should have you out of here soon." Dani blinked when she felt something tugging at her mind, pulling her back toward the edge of Eternity. "And tell Tucker I want to see him again! Find him for me! Please!"

Dani awoke with a start, her eyes jerking open to the sight of two heads peering down at her. One was the freckled girl in the green belly-shirt, and the other was an aged Asian woman with a long silver ponytail and a pair of kind eyes. Behind them she saw a classical wooden d?or accented by the smell of incense burning on the small coffee table near the couch upon which Dani was lying.

"Thanks for releasing the Pyckash Demon, stupid." The younger girl smirked.

"Juniper, do not jump to conclusions. We must ask the truth first. " The older woman looked down at Dani and used a long wooden cane to hit her on the shoulder that wasn't wrapped in a thick white bandage. "What were you doing, stupid?"

"Ow! Ugh..." Dani tried to sit up, but her body refused to cooperate. Her head still felt fuzzy, and she couldn't move her left arm at all. Still, she was quickly regaining her strength. "Eternity." She gasped. "I was trying to get to Eternity."

"Eternity?" The girl called Juniper looked up at the older Asian woman. "Do you know that realm, Ah-Ma?"

"I do, as a matter of fact." The older woman looked down at Dani. "It is the resting place of those whose time on this world has passed. But no normal human could possibly know of it."

"And no normal human could open a magical portal either." Juniper looked down at Dani with a venomous glare. "You'd better-" she stopped when a small, high-pitched voice interrupted her. She tried to ignore it. "You're better tell us what- FINE!" She snapped at last at the small voice.

Dani blinked when a young boy ran around the couch to the front, where he skipped to a stop and gave Dani a stare and a blush. "Hey." He told her.

"Um... hi," Dani replied. The young boy giggled and turned to rush away through an open door that led into the kitchen.

Juniper shook her head. "I think my brother likes you."

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Dani covered her mouth with both hands.

Juniper laughed. "Hah. Yeah. Can't say I blame you."

"No, really, I-HUGH!" Dani leaned off the side of the couch and threw up, but thankfully there was a bowl sitting on the floor beside her to catch it.

"Oh. Ewe." Juniper made a disgusted face.

"It's alright. It's just the Pyckash venom purging itself from her body." The older woman patted Dani's back. Her gentle strokes somehow calmed Dani's nerves as she lay bent over the side of the couch, now panting and sweating. "It will be alright, child. Just try to relax and you'll recover soon."

Dani plopped back on the couch, pale and panting as she looked up at Juniper. "Thanks for saving me. I thought I got it right. Guess I messed up somewhere."

"Calm yourself, and tell us what you were trying to do." The older woman gave her a gentle smile.

"Go to Eternity. See my friends." Dani gulped.

"I see." The older woman's smile turned to a sad frown. "You lost the ones you loved, and realized they were waiting in Eternity." When Dani nodded the older woman patted her shoulder. "You're not the first to attempt this. In fact it's one of the reasons that the magical realms are kept such a carefully guarded secret."

"Magical realms?"

"You mean you didn't know?" Juniper cocked her head to one side. "Then how did you open the portal? And why would you try to in the first place?"

"I don't know everything." Dani shook her head. "But I'll tell you what I can." Dani told her story since they'd boarded the cruise ship, about her dreams of Danielle and Eternity. She left out her ghost powers, figuring that they didn't need to know about that to tell Dani what she needed to know.

"I've never heard of this happening before." The older woman put a hand to her chin. "Somehow a psychic link has formed between you and this lost soul so strong that it can break through the magical barriers in Orchid Bay."

"But if she was opening a portal to Eternity, where did the Pyckash Demon come from? Did she open the wrong portal?" Juniper asked.

"Possibly. Possibly not." The older woman replied. "I'll need to see the ritual she was using when it happened. Do you have the book she mentioned?"

"I didn't see a book." Juniper looked down at Dani.

"It must still be in the park." Dani sat up, then gasped and clutched her arm. "We have to go get it. Someone else could find it and do something they'll regret."

The older woman looked up at Dani's savior. "Juniper, go with her to look for the book and bring it back to me."

Juniper gave a lazy salute. "We're on it." She walked around the couch and held out her hand to Dani. "Can you walk?"

"I think so." Dani grabbed her hand and let the Asian girl pull her up off of the sofa. "I'm Dani Fenton, by the way."

"Juniper Lee. Call me June." Juniper winked and turned to leave with Dani, but they both stopped when a small voice came up behind them with the rapid pounding of a pair of childish feet.

"Waaait! I'm coming too!" The voice from earlier said. Dani turned to look back at the boy, whose face turned bright red the moment she looked at him. "There's gotta be cool monsters, right?"

"Yeah, monsters are what's on your mind." Juniper smirked.

"Oh come oooonnnnn, do you think I'd come because of her?" The boy jerked his thumb at Dani and made a face of disgust. "Talk about disgusting, to think I'd like some girl. I'm in it for the monsters."

"You're in it for the hormones, and we have things to take care of."

"Come ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-"

"FINE!" Juniper roared when the boy showed no sign of stopping. "Just stay out of our way. I mean it, Ray-Ray."

"Alright! Don't worry about it. If any more Pyckash Demons show up, I got your back." The boy danced around like a boxer and tossed a couple of punches at the air.

"That sure does make me feel better." Juniper rolled her eyes and turned to leave the house.

They walked toward the park at a swift pace. Juniper looked like she wanted to go faster, but Dani was still feeling sluggish and her stomach was rolling around like a fishbowl in an earthquake. Until at last she could take no more and she doubled over on one of the nearby lawns, throwing up on the grass.

"Nice!" Ray-Ray giggled and leaned closer to his sister. "She's so awesome!"

"I never want to meet any of your future girlfriends," Juniper told him before moving to kneel down beside Dani, patting her back while Ray-Ray mumbled something about never having a girlfriend. "You alright? Need to take a rest?"

"I think I got it all out." Dani panted and hung her head. "Still dizzy though."

"Pyckash venom is usually deadly. You have no idea how lucky you are that you lasted long enough for me to get you to my grandmother's. Here, lean on me and let's keep going. We need to find that book." Dani nodded and took Juniper's arm to stand and lean against her. She was afraid she'd knock the smaller girl over, but she was amazingly strong and barely budged under Dani's weight.

They continued down the sidewalk with Ray-Ray bringing up the rear, though every time Dani glanced back the boy was looking at her. When he noticed her look he always looked away and turned bright red. Dani supposed she could clear the air right now. She had no interest in the boy... or any boy, for that matter. But she remembered being that young and crushing hard on some girl, whether real or fake. She didn't want to break his little heart and make him think ill of girls. It was probably best not to address it.

They marched on until they reached the park, where they found many groups of people had gathered to talk in excited tones. "Looks like you caused a heck of a scene." Juniper shook her head. "Just our luck that Pyckash Demons are one of the few magical creatures that can be seen by humans."

Dani shook her head. "I really need to get an explanation on this 'magical creature' stuff eventually."

"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

"Haha. Classic." Dani smiled at Juniper, but her smile faded when the freckled girl didn't smile back. Dani coughed. "Um... I think I left the book sitting on the bench over here." She pushed away from Juniper and made her way over to the park bench. She was starting to feel better. She must have gotten the last of the venom out of her system on that poor person's front lawn.

Dani stared down at the empty bench in confusion. "But... but I swear I..."

"Oh man..." Juniper walked past him. Dani looked over to where she was looking, and saw the glowing portal she'd opened still hovering before them. "I was in such a rush to get you to Ah-Ma's I forgot to close the portal! The Pyckash Demon could be running loose right now!"

"Alright, monster action! Let's see it!" Ray-Ray laughed.

"But where is it?" Dani asked. As if on cue, they hears a chorus of screams echo across the park, as people ran at full speed across the grass. Danny, Juniper, and Ray-Ray all gasped and stumbled back when their eyes turned skyward and they saw the serpentine demon flitting from tree to tree across the park. Dani gasped when she realized that a human body dangled from its tail.

"That thing has someone!" Dani yelled.

"Relax, I'll knock it back where it belongs. You two wait here!" Juniper took off across the park at a run, moving with astonishing speed.

Dani glanced down at Ray-Ray, who had fixed her with a dreamy look. Dani pointed over his head. "Look! It's Angelina Jolie!"

"What!?" Ray-Ray whirled around, giving Dani time to fade into invisibility. "Heeey. No it's not!" Ray-Ray looked back and saw Dani missing. "Hey!"

Dani charged forward, her body flashing invisibly into its ghost mode before she took to the sky, flying over the park. Looking down, she could see the serpentine monster leaping from tree to tree, coiling around the trunk of one to spring itself toward the top of the next one. Juniper ran along underneath, leaping into the air to take swipes at the creature, but it was moving too fast for her to get a hand on it.

Dani swept down toward the creature, letting herself become visible again. "Hey Snake-Eyes! Down boy!" Dani thrust both palms down as the creature leapt through the air. Her ecto-blast slammed into its back and sent it hurtling into the ground, where Juniper caught it with both hands above her head. She leapt into the air again and hurled the creature face-first into the ground. As its body writhed in pain and a shriek split the air, the body in its tail was sent flying through the air.

Dani flew after it and caught it in her arms, clutching it tightly. "Don't worry citizen, I-" she stopped and her blood ran cold when she saw that the figure in her arms was Sam wearing a large thick trench coat. Her arms were clutched tightly around the book Dani had gotten from the library, and on her shoulder she could see punctures in the coat through which she could see blood on her shoulder. "No... no. Sam! NO! SAM!" Dani tried to shake her awake, but her body felt almost as stiff as a board. "SAM!"

"She's been bitten!" Juniper yelled up from the ground. "Get her back to my grandmother's! She might just be paralyzed! But you have to hurry!"

"Paralyzed... hold on Sam! Hold on!" Dani whirled in the air, her legs fading into a single ghostly tail that swept behind her like a bullet trail as she flew through the air faster than she'd ever moved before. Sam's face was so pale, and her body was so stiff. It was almost as if rigor mortis had already set in... no, that couldn't be. Sam couldn't be gone. She couldn't...

Dani flew down toward the top of the building she'd seen before, floating through it and down into the living room. The old Chinese woman looked up in surprise and stood from her chair when she saw Dani come down through the ceiling. Dani touched down on the floor nearby and let her body shift back into its human form, no longer caring about secrets.

She looked at the woman with tear-stained cheeks, her breath coming in terrified gasps. "Please. Help her. She was bitten. I... I don't know what to do."

"Lay her on the sofa, quickly. We must act fast." The old woman took charge immediately, and soon they has Sam lying on the sofa. With her trench coat and top lying on the floor beside her, leaving the wound on her shoulder exposed.

Dani watched the old woman work, her entire body shaking so hard she had to plop down into a nearby chair to keep from collapsing to the floor, sitting on the edge with her hands clasped in front of her. The wound on Sam's shoulder was a horribly nasty shade of green, and she could practically see the venom that was even now making its was through her body. It had already spread to every part of her. Was it already too late?

_"You're talking about destroying the natural order of the universe. Even if we could, SHOULD we?" Dani looked away from her. "The Ghost Zone was one thing, because we thought that was the afterlife... but you're talking about actually trying to destroy the natural world as we know it in favor of your vision of paradise." Sam narrowed her eyes. "No matter who suffers for it. Sound familiar?"_

Sam's warning from that morning came back in full force, driving a cold chill deep into Dani's spine. Sam was right. What was Dani doing, risking everything just for a chance to destroy everything they knew to be true. She'd hurt Danielle trying to open the portal, and then because of Dani, Sam was now fighting a losing battle for her life. Her face was growing paler by the second, her lips beginning to turn a shade of sickly blue through her lipstick.

"Please... God..." Dani clasped her hands in front of her, resting her forehead against them as a fresh wave of tears washed down her cheeks. "Please..."

* * *

Dani stood in the infinitely swirling rainbow energy of Eternity, standing with a blank look on her face and staring at Danielle, who was standing in front of her. Danielle watched her with a concerned expression. Dani opened her mouth to speak, but no words would come out. She couldn't bring herself to even speak anymore. The knowledge of what she'd done was too great. She'd been so eager to bring back the dead that she'd sacrificed the one who was still alive. 

"Danielle." Dani gulped through her tears. "I..."

"Dani?" Dani's eyes went wide when she heard an old familiar voice from right behind her. Dani turned around slowly, looking back to see Tucker watching her with a concerned look in his eyes, hidden behind his thick wide-rimmed glasses. "Dani, what did you do?"

"I didn't mean to." Dani gulped and shook her head. "I'm so sorry. I... I just couldn't. I could accept..." She collapsed to her knees in front of Tucker, who just watched her with his back straight and tall. "I'm the reason you're all gone, I never thought... never thought getting you back would mean l... losing..."

"Dani, listen." Tucker knelt down in front of her. "I know what you've been doing. I even know what you've been thinking. One of the perks of being here." He smiled slightly. "And yes, hot chicks making out is nice." Dani wanted to laugh, but she couldn't. Tucker's smile faded in a moment. "I miss you too dude, but I don't want to see you. Because I know what it will mean when I do. You deserve to live your life, Dani."

"So do you, Tucker." Dani gulped. "If I hadn't abandoned you, if I'd kept you closer to me, you would still be with us in Amity Park. You'd still be there for me." Dani closed her eyes. "Now I've killed Sam because I was too stupid to stop and think about what I was doing. She's going to die, Tucker... I'm going to be alone. I can't... I can't be alone now. Not now. It was our honeymoon, Tuck... and I threw it away... I threw it away to chase after you and this stupid dream." She dropped down and put her hands on the ground, her eyes squeezed shut. "I threw her away because I was too stupid to just accept the way things were..."

Tucker put his hands on her biceps and stood up straight, forcing Dani to rise to her feet. Dani looked up into his eyes, barely able to see through her tears. "It's okay, Dani. Everyone makes mistakes. That's what life is for, after all." He smiled and winked. "But you know you've done way more good than harm in your life. That kind of thing doesn't go unnoticed."

Dani nodded. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I've been so fixated on this, I'm sorry I hurt Danielle to open the portal, I'm sorry I let Sam get..." She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth.

Suddenly a soft wind seemed to blow through Eternity, and the energy that surrounded them began to dance faster than ever before, swirling and shifting around their bodies. Dani looked down in surprise as the energy swirled up her body, then floated away to blend into the endless sea of energy that surrounded them.

"It looks like you're forgiven, dude." Tucker smiled while the laughter of a little girl echoed in the distance.

* * *

Dani's breath came slow and steady as she realized she was awakening. She didn't remember falling asleep, or much else since she'd arrived at the house with Sam. She knew she had to open her eyes, to see what was happening. But that would mean confirming the dire truth. So she kept her eyes closed, trying to fall back asleep, or perhaps just to die right there. She didn't want to wake up and learn that Sam was gone. She would rather never wake up at all. 

"Open your eyes, child." She heard the kindly old Chinese woman speaking before her.

"I can't." Dani gulped.

She heard a pair of giggles from nearby and felt a gnarled and gentle, but firm hand grip her shoulder. "It's okay, Dani. She's safe."

"Wh... what?" Dani opened her eyes slowly, fearing that it was a joke. They shot wide open when she saw Sam sitting up on the bed, leaning against the back of the sofa. Her face was paler than usual and her breath was coming in rapid gulps, but when she saw Dani awake she smiled through her discomfort. "Sam... but I was sure... I mean I thought..."

"Nope. Safe and sound." Juniper drew Dani's attention to the back of the sofa, where she was draped over it with her arms dangling down near the cushions in a lazy manner. "You got her back just in time."

"You rock!" Ray-Ray shouted from his position straddling the arm of the couch.

Dani looked away from them to fix her gaze on Sam, who was watching her with a tired expression on her face. Dani stood up from the chair and approached the sofa, leaning down to lift Sam into her arms. Sam wrapped her arms around her neck, staring into her eyes until their lips met in a gentle, loving kiss that said everything they needed to say to each other.

A tiny gasp came from the arm of the sofa, where Ray-Ray's eyes had gone wide. "I'm feeling things I've never felt before. And it is nice." He stared at them as if transfixed.

"Ugh. Great. You jumpstarted his puberty. I hope you're happy." Juniper grumped, though the slight smile on her face betrayed her act.

Dani broke the kiss and pulled back to stare into Sam's eyes. "I'm so sorry, Sam. I swear, I'll never take what I still have for granted again."

"That's good to hear." Sam smiled slightly. Dani smiled back, then let her gaze slip down Sam's body, held in her arms. Sam was wearing a loose black top that left her naval exposed with a leather vest draped across her shoulders that reflected the light of the sun through the window. On her legs she no longer wore a pair of tights under a skirt. Instead she wore a pair of leather pants that covered her legs entirely, with a pair of chains dangling from her waist to her ankles on the outside of her legs, attached to the pants at various points to keep them from swinging wildly. On her feet was a pair of sharp boots with steel plated toes and heavily weighted heels.

"You found a new look." Dani looked up at her eyes.

"I'm not moody... but I AM still a rebel." Sam grinned. "You like it?"

"You look good in anything." Dani kissed her again, then set her down on the floor, where her steel heels thunked down on the wooden floorboards. Sam continued to lean against her weakly, but she was able to stand.

"So let's make this clear." Juniper walked around the sofa to stand in front of them. "No more opening random portals to alternate dimensions full of venomous monsters that can hurt people, alright?"

"They should make a public service announcement about that." Dani smirked. "Yeah, I think I got the message." She heaved a sigh and squeezed Sam's hand tightly. "I'm not going to risk what I have to get back what I had. Not again."

Juniper's grandmother moved up behind the small freckled girl, fixing Sam and Dani with a gentle smile. "Would you like to stay for dinner? I'm making fried duck." She offered. Juniper made a face and made a quick 'run away' hand gesture, which abruptly ceased when her grandmother glanced in her direction.

Dani chuckled. "Thanks, but no thanks. We have a cruise ship to catch up with, and a honeymoon to finish."

"Honeymoon?" Ray-Ray ran up to them. "But, but but..."

"Sorry kid, I'm spoken for." Dani held out her left hand to display her wedding ring. "But don't worry, there's a girl out there for you." Ray-Ray's lip quivered and he turned to walk away, his head drooping down against his chest.

"You should go, then." Juniper's grandmother waved her finger at them reproachfully. "A honeymoon isn't something you want to miss. You'll regret it for the rest of your days."

"Right." Dani nodded and glanced aside at Sam. "Come on, if we leave now we can make it back by nighttime."

"My favorite part of the day." Sam grinned and turned to leave with her. Dani glanced around to make sure nobody else was around, then let her body slip into ghost mode. She wasn't worried about Juniper and her family seeing them, her grandmother had already seen Dani transform anyway. Besides, it seemed like they had some secrets of their own to keep. She could trust them with hers.

She wrapped her arms around Sam's waist and bolted into the sky, flying through the brisk evening breeze as she made a straight line toward the ocean. The setting orange sun reflected gold off of the ocean's water, setting the world on fire as they made their way back to where they had left off. To a week of perpetual bliss with nothing in the world except each other. And this time, Dani wouldn't let anything get in their way.

* * *

Juniper was sitting in Ah-Ma's kitchen, sighting at the sight of the fried duck sitting in the center of the old oak table around which she, her grandmother, and Ray-Ray were seated. 

"Really, I think mom said we had to be home for dinner." Juniper argued.

"No, I just talked to her. She said you were so looking forward to tonight." Her grandmother smiled and placed a couple of piece of black meat on her plate.

"Thanks..." Juniper sighed.

"Sooo aloooone..." Ray-Ray crooned pathetically in a sorrowful voice. "Alooone for all tiiiime because my giiirrrrl left meeeeeee."

"Well, the vomit-inducing music goes well with the inedible food." Juniper grumbled to herself. She spent a few moments poking her meat with her fork in an attempt to crack the hard outer shell that had formed, with little success. Then she leaned her chin against her hand and looked over at her grandmother. "I've got to say, Ah-Ma, I'm glad everything worked out today. When I realized the girl was bitten I thought she was a goner. You pulled off a miracle."

"Actually, to tell you the truth June, she was." Her grandmother said in a soft tone. Ray-Ray continued to croon on in the background, oblivious to their conversation while Juniper's eyes went wide. "She was dead before she reached this place."

"But... but I thought magic couldn't bring back the dead."

"It can't. Which means something else made it happen. Perhaps whatever opened the portal." Ah-Ma smirked. "The dance in that book wasn't worth the time it took to read it. Something else must have opened the portal and summoned the Pyckash Demon."

"But what?" Juniper rested her chin against her hand in a more thoughtful position. "Do you think Dani has some kind of power over magic?"

"Magic? No." Ah-Ma shook her head. "But she clearly has some kind of great power. Greater than any she realizes. And I doubt we've seen the last of her."

"Alooooooone becaaaause I'm noooot a sheeeeeeee." Ray-Ray crooned in sorrow.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Long ago, three heroes fought to save the world. Their lives were full of danger and pain, but they fought until at last they won the peace they had sought for 12 long years. Now a shadow from their past will return to haunt the present, and take revenge on those who opposed it so long ago. The explosive multi-part season finale begins next week.

Episode 16: Rebirths - The Shadow With No Master


	16. Rebirths The Shadow With No Master

(Notes: "The Powerpuff Girls" is owned by Cartoon Network. "Kim Possible" is owned by Disney) 

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies 

Dani finds a book in Orchid Bay library that allows her to open a portal to an alternate dimension... but it seems it's not Eternity, because a monster is let loose on the world. She's saved by Juniper Lee, but the monster's rampage continues and finds Sam, who nearly dies from the encounter. After one last trip to Eternity to finally speak to Tucker face-to-face, Dani realizes that it's better to focus on the present and future than to try to regain the past. 

Episode 16: Rebirths - The Shadow With No Master 

The snow on the ground had melted, and the winds were growing pleasantly warm with the approach of Autumn. Inside the largest building in the town, Samantha Fenton and her husband slash wife Dani were busy gathering up Sam's things for transport to FentonWorks, where they planned to live together until they could get a place of their own. Sam's mother hadn't found out yet, though. Sam was hoping to be packed before she found out. 

Then like a specter coming out of her worst nightmare, she heard the door to her bedroom open and her mother step inside, looking around at the almost completely clean room and the pile of suitcases gathered up in the middle of the floor. 

"Sam? What's all this about?" Her mother fixed her with a sharp glare. 

Sam exchanged a glance with Dani, then stood up straight and brushed off her leather vest and pants. "Mom, I decided to move in with Dani and her family until we can get our own place." 

"What?" Mrs. Manson's eyes went wide in shock. "But why would you do that?" 

"I just think it would be best." Sam put her arms behind her back. She didn't want to admit that she just didn't like living in this castle. It made her uncomfortable, as if everyone in the world was still watching them. Living too extravagant was the thing that made her life before moving to Amity Park so frustrating. "Me and Dani need to live together, and we both feel that his place is where we want to live." 

Her mother's eyes narrowed in anger, then they grew softer and she turned to leave without another word. "Mom, wait!" Sam rushed after her, the chains on her legs rattling with the frantic movement. She caught up to her mom in the hallway and grabbed her hand, halting her retreat. "I'm sorry, but I've never been comfortable in places like this. These huge mansions, they make me uncomfortable. It has nothing to do with you or dad." 

"It's your life now, Samantha." Her mother didn't look at her, instead staring down at the carpet. "You've made your decisions, and I clearly can't do anything about it now. Go where you please, do what you please. It's what you always wanted." 

"It is." Sam gripped her hand tighter. "But I don't want to do those things alone. I want to do them with your support, mom. I promise, I'll come back and visit you every single day. Okay?" 

Her mother looked back at her with sad eyes and squeezed her hand tightly. "Don't make promises you don't intend to keep, Sam. I always taught you that." She gave a gentle smile, then released Sam's hand and turned to head down the hallway again. Sam didn't follow this time, unable to think of anything else to say. Instead she heaved a soft sigh and turned to plod back to her room, her steel-bottomed boots thumping harder than usual across the thick carpet. 

Inside her bedroom her eyes went wide when she saw Dani reading through a small stack of papers that had been stapled together. "Hey! Get away from that!" Sam rushed forward to grab it from her, but her arms passed right through Dani's suddenly immaterial body. "I mean it Dani! I didn't mean for anyone to read that!" 

"Then why did you write it?" Dani looked up at her. 

"I only wrote it to trick my mom!" Sam's face was bright red, and her fists her clenched at her sides. "Now come on, seriously, give it to me." 

"Why are you so worried? It's really good." Dani floated up from the bed, reading the last few paragraphs in a loud, commanding voice. "The whistling of the wind through the trees grew to a mighty crescendo as the two lovers stood in the middle of the empty plains, their arms wrapped around one another as their eyes locked. The wind blew their hair back as their feminine bodies intertwined without a care in the universe. All of the worries of the world were blown away on the winds of time, the hatred of the world washed away by the strength of their individuality. They were not pawns of society, nor were they shaped by it. They were lovers. And it didn't matter what anyone else would think." 

When she finished reading, Sam's face felt hot and her cheeks were flushed in embarrassment, but Dani gave her an enthusiastic smile. "This is really good, Sam. I read the first few lines and just couldn't stop." 

"Oh stop that. It's mushy fluff." 

"Well, yeah, but it's good fluff. Really gets me right here." Dani put one hand over her heart and landed in front of Sam, once again tangible. Sam snatched the papers out of her hand. "Have you thought about trying to write more?" 

"Of course not. Like I said, it's just something I wrote to trick my mom." 

"Well, maybe you should." Dani smiled. Sam stared down at the pieces of paper in her hand for a moment, then shoved them into one of the full suitcases and zipped it shut. 

Grabbing the last empty suitcase off of her bed, she approached her nightstand and grabbed her laptop to slip it inside, along with the pictures that decorated the top of the nightstand. When she pulled open the top drawer, she was surprised to see her copy of the Necronomicon sitting on top, wide open as if someone had been reading it. But the pages that were displayed were blank. She blinked, trying to remember... 

_ Sam read through several chapters of the Necronomicon, entranced by some of the passages. Some were stories of blood and betrayal that stirred something deep in her soul. Others looked like spells and enchantments of various kinds. Curses mostly, that could do anything from give a person bad luck to simply make their heart stop beating. It was somewhat spooky how detailed it became, but she reminded herself it couldn't be real. It was written in plain English, after all. _

She flipped the page to the next one, titled 'The Shadow With No Master'. The story it told was that of a shadow who had come to life at the bidding of its master, only to one day be ripped away from her into the world outside where its young life turned to nothing but a desire for vengeance and blood. It reminded Sam vaguely of Johnny 13's Shadow, though she doubted they were really related. Oddly enough, the pages containing these passages didn't have the same texture as the rest. As if it was added recently. 

"Weird." Sam said softly to herself. After the story ended there was a passage that seemed to be some kind of chant along with a list of instructions. Above it was simply written 'Release the Shadow'. She placed her fingers on the text lightly, feeling a strange tingle running up her hand, though it wasn't altogether unpleasant. 

A shadow seemed to leap from the blood red text onto her finger, but she jerked her hand back and gasped in surprise. She grabbed the book and tossed it toward the foot of the bed, where it landed with those same pages still facing upward. She rubbed her hand for several minutes, staring at the pages of the book without blinking, but she didn't see the shadow again. Her heartbeat slowed and her breath calmed down when she closed her eyes. She really must have been spending too much time in the dark. 

"The pages are gone..." Sam flipped through the book, thinking maybe it was just open to the wrong page. But the one she'd found before wasn't in the book. 

"Something wrong, Sam?" Dani walked up behind her. 

"I'm pretty sure these pages had something on them before." Sam shook her head. "Why would they be blank now?" 

"That is pretty weird." Dani shrugged. "Maybe you were just seeing things when you saw stuff on them." 

"Yeah, maybe." Sam nodded. She had been under quite a bit of stress, thinking about her predicament with Dani and what to do about it. Dani's gentle hands took it from her and stuffed them into the last empty suitcase while Dani gave her a tender smile. "We should probably get home and start unpacking my things if we want to be done before nighttime." 

"There's no hurry." Dani shook her head. "We have the rest of our lives to unpack, right?" 

Sam smiled. "Right. But let's not take that long." Dani laughed. 

They finished packing Sam's things in uncomfortable silence, then walked outside and signaled for Sam's butlers to go back inside and carry it all out to the limo waiting on the curb. It occurred to Sam that, living with the Fentons, all of the perks she'd gotten used to would be gone. No more butlers or maids around to wait on her when she was sick. No more cloud-like carpeting. No more Cal King size bed all to herself. No more entertainment center in her walls or Movie Theater in her basement. 

But then, she had Dani. It seemed like an even trade to her. 

She did get a bit misty-eyed as she looked back up at her old home, though. She could come back any time, and she swore she would visit as frequently as she could. At last the butlers finished packing up her things, and she climbed into the back of the limo with Dani to take the long ride to the FentonWorks building. 

Their hands clasped as they emerged form the limo and made their way up the steps to the front door, pushing it open. Inside they found Dani's parents and Jazz waiting with their own suitcases and solemn expressions on their faces. 

"Mom? Dad? What's going on?" Dani asked. 

Maddie spoke first. "Pack your things, Dani. We have to leave town for a day or two. Something has come up, and I would like us all be there as a family." 

"Plus she's making me go, and if I have to go, so do you." Jack huffed. "So pack your things, offspring." 

Sam groaned and hung her head. She hadn't even moved in here yet and they were taking a trip? Dani glanced at Sam with a slight smile. "Welcome to the Fentons."

* * *

The city of Townsville was deceptively large, a massive metropolitan complex surrounded on all sides by smaller suburbs in which most of the citizens lived, where they commuted to work inside the massive collection of spires and towers in the center. It was a truly awe-inspiring sight coming up over the horizon from the window of the airplane, in which the Fentons sat. The largest building seemed to cut a line right through the sun as it rose in the Eastern horizon. 

"Just what we need." Sam sighed. "A funeral." 

"It's important to mom. He was a teacher of hers back in college," Jazz explained. 

"That's right, Jasmine." Maddie leaned forward from the seat behind them. "And he was a brilliant scientist, who advanced several scientific fields several generations during his lifetime. He made more breakthroughs in technology and genetics than anyone else, and was the nicest man you could ever hope to meet. They say he even discovered a formula that could cause living cells to self-generate infinite amounts of energy." 

Dani looked over at her in surprise. "Wow. He must've been ancient." 

"Ripe old age of eighty-five." Maddie nodded. "And he made the most of every year. He's an inspiration to the whole world." 

There wasn't much to be said to that, so they lapsed into silence as the plane came down into the midst of the massive buildings and towering spires of Townsville. Amity Park wasn't a tiny town, but this place made it seem like an anthill. It was even bigger from the ground when they emerged from the airport terminal into the sparkling clean city streets. Immediately, Dani was struck by just how serene it seemed for such a huge city. 

"Look at this place. How does a massive city like this stay so calm?" Sam asked. 

"The country's best police force." The Fentons turned when they heard a feminine voice. A woman approached down the sidewalk wearing a modest pink business tuxedo, with a black belt that circled around her waist. There were streaks of gray in her waist-length red hair, which framed a weathered, but gentle face with kind, strangely pink-colored eyes. "We learned a long time ago how important aggressive law enforcement is." 

"A lesson well-learned, it seems." Maddie approached the woman and took her hand in a firm shake. "I'm Madeline Fenton, I received an invitation yesterday afternoon." 

"Yes, of course. The Professor spoke highly of you." The woman smiled. "You wouldn't be here otherwise. It's a small gathering of his most trusted friends and colleagues... and their families of course. I'm Blossom Utonium, the mayor of Townsville. I'm sorry to make you wait, but there's still one more guest who we need to collect before we can take off." 

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" Another woman approached as a swift jog, followed by several other people who seemed to be her family. The woman came to a stop in front of them, putting a hand to her chest to try to catch her breath. "They lost our luggage. I was afraid we wouldn't make it in time." 

"Hey, that's perfectly okay, Dr. Possible." Blossom smiled. 

Maddie blinked and approached her with a confused look. When she got closer her lips spread into a huge smile. "Anne? Anne Possible? Is that you?" 

"Maddie?" The second redheaded woman looked up, then squealed as they flung their arms around each other. "Oh my gosh! It's been fifteen years!" 

"I know! I can't believe you were invited too!" Maddie stepped back with a broad grin on her face. "And look at you. You look terrific. I see you put that medical degree to good use." 

"Yes, well, what else should one do with a specialization in delicate surgeries only a handful of doctors are equipped to perform?" The woman called Anne chuckled. "What about you?" 

"I'm an inventor now. You know those voice synthesizers that just went on the market? That's one of ours. Mine and Jack's." Maddie slipper her arm through her husband's. 

"Oh, that's just wonderful." Anne grinned. "Ooh, look what else I have. Kids?" Anne gestured behind her, and three others moved up to her dutifully. One was a girl slightly older than Dani and Sam with long fiery red hair wearing a long black dress with thin straps over her shoulders. The others were a pair of boys slightly younger than Dani wearing mathing black tuxedos. "This is my Kimmie-cub." Anne grinned and pinched the girl on the cheek. 

"Ugh, mom, come on." Kim blushed and pushed her hand away. 

"And these are my boys, Tim and Jim." Anne put her hands on the twins' shoulders. "Say hi, boys." The boys waved. 

"Awww, they're adorable!" Maddie quickly grabbed her three younger girls and shoved them up front, as if trying to draw a weapon on a rival gunman. "These are my girls, Dani and Jasmine. And... this is Dani's wife, Sam." 

Kim looked back and forth between them for a moment with a puzzled look on her face. "Um... is that legal?" 

"Lesbians." One of the twins grinned. 

"Hickabicka heckyeah." The other twin grinned as well before they shared a high five. 

"There were extenuating circumstances." Maddie smiled bashfully. 

"Ahem." Blossom cleared her throat. "I hate to be rude and interrupt the reunion, but the service should be starting soon and we can't keep the other guests waiting." She stepped to one side and gestured to a long white stretch limousine that was parked next to the curb behind her. "There's refreshments inside, if you're hungry or thirsty after your long flights." 

"Thank you." Anne and Maddie spoke at the same time, then exchanged a broad, happy smile before both moving to climb into the limo at once. They slammed into each other, and each stepped back to let the other in. "After you. No, after you." 

Dani leaned close to Jazz. "Are they friends or enemies?" 

Jazz shook her head. "Sometimes it's a very thin line, Dani." 

Soon they all slipped into the very spacious limo, and it started on down the street. Traffic was amazingly light most of the way, though there was a huge crowd gathered around a large auditorium near the center of town. Their limo pulled up in front of the building, and the driver opened the door for them. 

"Come on. Try to walk fast, the crowd can get rowdy sometimes." Blossom walked up the small red carpet into the building at a quick pace. 

The Fentons and the Possibles stood at the front of the carpet for a moment, staring in wonder until suddenly a bottle shattered against the limo right beside them. That sent all of them scurrying up the carpet in a panic to get out of the line of fire. When they reached refuge inside the building, they found there were posters of a dashing man with a corncob pipe dangling from the side of his mouth, and the words "The Professor" written underneath in intricate script dangling from the ceiling. 

"Why is he just called The Professor?" Dani asked. 

Maddie spoke with a firm, official tone. "He preferred it that way. He never wanted his name to be well known, he only wanted to help the world. So he only ever let himself be referred to as 'The Professor' so people would focus on his work instead of his name." 

"Crazy old coot." Jack mumbled. A sharp elbow in the ribs from his wife shut him up in a hurry. 

"Please, feel free to enjoy the refreshments until the service starts. It shouldn't be long, now." Blossom opened her arms with a broad smile on her face. 

"Alright, little wieners on sticks!" Jack rushed off toward the nearest buffet table, shoving people out of his way with thunderous thuds and crashes. Maddie rushed to catch up with him, leaving Sam, Jazz, and Dani standing with the Possibles. 

"Why don't we all try to go mingle a bit?" Anne Possible suggested as she looked around the room. "Oh my, I haven't seen her in forever!" She wandered off, pulling her hapless husband behind her. 

"Hit the buffet?" One of the twins suggested. 

"If you insist." The other one nodded and they wandered off. 

"Hey, you tweebs better not mess with that food!" Kim ran off across the floor after them, leaving the three Fenton teenagers standing by the entrance. 

"Well, this is something I wanted to spend the week after my honeymoon doing." Sam sighed. 

"It's just for one day. Our flight back home leaves tonight, so just try to enjoy yourselves. Mingle and meet some people. It's always good to have friends." Jazz smiled at the two of them and turned to walk toward a small gathering that had formed near the punchbowl on the side of the room. 

"I don't know." Sam looked around with her hands on her hips. "Pretty much everyone here looks like a boring scientist to me." 

"Which is why Jazz fits in and we don't." Dani shrugged. "Maybe we can get away with sneaking away somewhere." 

"I'm game." Sam smiled. 

Before they could make good on their thread they heard several loud thumps over several speakers hooked up throughout the room. They turned to look back curiously to see Blossom Utonium standing on a small podium set up against the back of the room, reaching up to adjust hr hair band one last time before clearing her throat and leaning forward to speak into her microphone. 

"I would just like to thank everyone for coming here today. I'm sure it makes The Professor very happy to know that so many wonderful people still remember him." Blossom smiled and took a small sip of a glass of water, which she then placed on the podium in front of her. "But the thing about Professor Utonium was that he didn't want his name to be remembered. He didn't want to be a great man. He wanted to be a man who was a part of a great people, and he did everything in his power to make his people great. To make us all great." 

"But even though he didn't want to be known as a great person, I don't know anyone who would claim that he wasn't. He was a brilliant scientific mind who pushed forward the fields of technology and genetics several generations during his lifetime. He was a reliable friend, who would always do everything he could for those he considered a friend. Even to his enemies, he would offer a kind hand. He was a brilliant scientist, a kind man... and a loving father." 

Blossom trailed off for a moment to dab at her suddenly moist eye with a handkerchief. "The world was a better place for having him in it, and that better world is one of his greatest, and most cherished legacies. It was his dream. And may it one day truly become the world that he wanted it to be. Rest in peace Professor Utonium... father... you've done your part. It's time for us all to do ours." 

Dani found her hand clutching Sam's, as tears slipped down her cheeks. Sam's hand was squeezing back with equal vigor as they watched Blossom force a smile as her pink eyes swept across those gathered. "And our part is simply to keep smiling. Because that is what he always loved to see more than anything else in this world." 

Dani and Sam exchanged a silent glance and turned to leave the room, suddenly feeling like intruders, having never known The Professor. But suddenly the doors of the large building slammed shut with a thunderous crash. The impact was so fierce that wood splinters shot into the room, covering those close enough to be caught in their path. 

Dani stepped back, clutching Sam's hand tighter as a shadow seeped under the bottom of the door, sliding across the finely polished tiles until it stopped a few feet in front of the door, where it separated from the floor. Its form spread outward, into that of a curious creature barely a foot and a half tall, and vaguely human-shaped though its hands ended in thick stumps. Its body seemed to be a single, cloak-like shadow that swept through the air around its body like flames. 

A pair of powerful, green pools of energy opened on the front of its large head, narrowed and staring straight at Blossom. It raised one black arm, which reshaped itself into a razor thin blade twice as long as the shadow was. When it spoke, it was in a dark, merciless hiss. "Your father awaits you, Blossom." 

"Y... you..." Blossom stepped back frantically, her pink eyes wide in horror. "No, no... it's not possible!" 

"Dani?" Sam said quickly. 

"I can't go ghost with so many people around." Dani gritted her teeth and looked around the extremely crowded room. 

"Still afraid of me?" The shadow stepped forward, marching toward the center of the building. The gathered crowd moved aside to give it plenty of space. "You should be. Your father's blood was just an appetizer." 

"You killed him!?" Blossom's voice shuddered. "How... how could you!?" 

"I don't want to hear it from you!" The shadow lunged suddenly, leaping over the crowd. It's black essence spread out through the air, tendrils of it sweeping forward like string caught in the air from a fan. Blossom tripped in her frantic escape and fell to her back as the tendrils of shadow came down on the stage before her, reshaping themselves into the figure from before. Its left hand formed once again into the deadly blade, which hovered just a foot in front of Blossom's face. "You all banished me and took my son from me." 

Blossom shook her head. "We had nothing to do with that! We never knew what happened to you!" 

"Lies won't save you Blossom! You or your sisters!" The shadow raises its black blade high above its head and brought it down. The shadows cut through the air, leaving a trail of darkness behind it. The crowd gasped in shock and horror while Dani and Sam quickly turned their eyes from the gruesome scene, but a grunt and another strange sound replaced the scream they were expecting. 

Dani opened her eyes, looking into the center of the room. Kim Possible was crouched on top of Blossom, straddling her waist facing the shadow. Her palms were closed around the dark blade, holding it tightly even though the shadow was struggling to drive it further forward. 

"Don't you have any respect for the dead!?" Kim Possible jerked her arms to the side and back suddenly, yanking the shadow toward her. 

Her right arm came back around in a fierce back fist that sent the shadow hurtling back against the floor, tumbling across it for several feet before it finally came to a stop. Kim rose to her feet and stepped forward away from Blossom, holding her hands loose and ready in front of her as the shadow climbed back to a standing position, its essence swirling around its body as if in anger. 

Kim lifted her long black dress away from her ankles and kicked off her high heels, which clattered to the floor in front of her as she took a stronger combat stance. The shadow's glowing green eyes narrowed, but it made no move to attack. 

"You're not touching her unless you go through me." Kim said, more as a statement of fact than a threat. 

"So be it." The shadow whirled suddenly and a black tendril lashed out from one arm, cutting the air with a sharp crack. The people in the crowd shouted in shock and Kim screamed in pain as she stumbled back, clutching her left arm in pain as blood began to trickle down her arm. 

"Be careful, Kim!" Anne shouted from the crowd, clutching her hands in front of her worriedly. 

Several more tendrils of shadow emerged from its body, each writhing in the air, living whips that were just waiting for a chance to draw blood. Kim moved slowly around the small creature, her eyes steady and focused as she ignored the blood that dripped from her left elbow from the deep gash in her arm. 

Suddenly the shadow lunged, spinning to send each of the whips arching forward. Kim's body leapt into a blur of motion, leaping through the first two whips, but the third lashed across her leg, while the next two dug deep into her side straight through her dress. Kim grunted and fell to her knees, her body shuddering against the pain. 

"Dani!" Sam exclaimed near the door. 

"I can't! Someone will see!" Dani hissed back, though she couldn't take her eyes off of the battle. 

Kim lurched back to her feet again, and this time went on the offensive. Her body shot through the air like a missile, but the shadows whirled easily out of the way, the tendrils of shadow whipping up to meet her. But Kim curled into a ball in mid-air, letting most of them lash across the front of her legs while she grabbed two of the others out of the air, yanking them to the side. 

The shadow was yanked through the air like a ball-and-chain, but when Kim let go to send her flying a tendril wrapped around her wrist. The shadow was pulled back, swinging from Kim's wrist up under her arm to slam feet-first into her face. Kim stumbled back from the impact while the shadow somersaulted through the air, coming back down face first to land on her chest, planting several punches across her jaw. 

Kim brought her arm around to knock the shadow off of her, but two tendrils lashed out to wrap around her shoulders. The shadow used them to bounce off the floor and come back up like a rocket, slamming both feet straight into Kim's jaw with enough force to send her flying from the floor. The crowd's gasps of horror drowned out the sound of Kim's body hitting the floor. This time, she stayed there. 

The shadow whirled through the air again, one arm stretching forward into a long javelin, which it brought down right on top of Kim. The crowd screamed as the blade plunged right through Kim's chest. The sound of tissue tearing was met by the sound of tile shattering as the blade broke through the floor beneath her. 

"KIM! NO!" Anne Possible screamed and tried to move forward, but her husband wrapped his arms around her waist to stop her, holding her tightly and watching the shadow with fearful eyes. 

Kim grunted in pain, trying to grab at the blade that pinned her down. With a swift jerk the shadow wrenched the blade free, driving a weak scream from Kim's lips. Kim lay back on the ground, her hands clutching at the wound in her chest as the shadow brought the blade up again. 

"No! Stop!" Blossom stepped forward, her body shaking. "You don't want her, you want me! Just kill me and leave her alone!" 

The shadow turned to look at her, its glowing eyes growing narrow. "Very well then, dear sister." It drew the blade away from Kim and turned to walk toward Blossom. 

Anne broke from the crowd once the shadow moved away and dove to the ground, kneeling beside her daughter. "Kim, hold on!" 

"Dani!" Sam gripped Dani's hand tighter, drawing her attention back to her. Dani's lips were already set in a grim line, her pale face revealing her innermost thoughts. "Whatever happens, you'll have your family beside you. You'll have me." 

Dani pulled her close into a fierce kiss, breaking it in only a few seconds to look at her eyes. "I know." Dani stepped away from her and turned toward the shadow. 

The crowd around her gasped and turned to look at her as a ring of light formed around her stomach, sweeping across her body in both directions until she was shrouded by her ghostly form. She took off into the sky before anyone could say anything, her fists glowing with ecto-energy. 

The shadow approached Blossom, who stood her ground despite the two black blades that moved uncomfortably close to her. Suddenly an ecto-blast slammed into the shadowy form, knocking it into the floor where it slid into the crowd. The startled spectators screamed and moved away from it as quickly as they could. 

"Hey, don't you know how to treat a lady?" Dani growled. 

The shadow climbed to its feet. "I AM a girl, you prick!" The shadow climbed to its feet. 

"Really? Wow. You have my sympathy." Dani fired another double-handed ecto beam that ripped apart the ground, but the shadow dodged to the side faster than any human could move. It weaved through the room, its form shifting so much it was hard to Dani to tell where it ended and where the crowd began. So she let the energy fade from her fists and moved closer to the ground, following the shadow around the room as it weaved through the crowd. 

Suddenly the shadow whirled and leapt straight at her face. Dani didn't have time to turn or even blink before it slammed into her, clinging to her head as she veered back into the air near the ceiling. Dani swiped at her face, but the shadow slipped down her body to her back, wrapping two dark tendrils around her stomach as both of its arms rose into the air, forming a pair of blades. 

Dani flung herself straight down toward the ground at full speed, going intangible at the very last second. The shadow slammed into the floor with a dull thump, which was muffled by the several feet of concrete between it and Dani. Dani's body phased back up through the floor to see the shadow kneeling on the ground, rubbing its relatively huge head with one hand. 

Dani crossed her arms over her torso. "I suggest you leave. Before I get any more ticked off than I already am." 

"Blossom sealed her fate when she stole my son from me. She and her sisters. And I will make sure they all pay." The shadow whirled suddenly, its black essence dissipating into the air. The tendrils of shadow weaved through the crowd, who screamed and rushed to get out of its way until it reached the front door, slipping out through the crack in the bottom of the door. 

Danny floated after it, but she stopped when she heard Anne Possible speaking behind her. 

"We've got to get her to a hospital!" Anne screamed. "I think her lung's been punctured!" 

Dani whirled to look back, seeing Anne kneeling down beside the blood-covered form of her daughter lying on the floor. Kim's eyes were closed now, her body writhing as she struggled for breath. 

"We don't have time." Blossom whirled away from Kim, looking around the room until her gaze settled on Dani. "You! Do you think you can carry two people?" Dani blinked and nodded. Blossom seemed amazingly comfortable with Dani's display of power. Everyone else had her fixed with gazes full of either awe or terror. It was difficult to tell which was which. "I'll direct you where to go, just carry us." Blossom leaned down to lift Kim into her arms, holding her with some difficulty. "It'll be alright, Mrs. Possible. I promise." 

Dani flew across the room toward them, swooping down to lift Blossom from the ground. She flew straight up, phasing them through the roof of the auditorium. "Which way is the hospital?" Dani shouted. 

"We're not going to the hospital, they can't do anything if her lung's punctured. Get her to my place! Now!" Blossom pointed off to the side, toward the suburbs outside of the city. Dani thought for a moment to protest, but the sound of Kim's gurgling breath prompted her into action, she flew as fast as she could away from the city, her legs forming into a ghostly tail. She just hoped it was enough speed to make it in time.

* * *

Interesting. A familiar voice spoke into the mind of a teenage girl as she stood on the roof of the auditorium in Townsville, watching Dani fly away with the two unfamiliar redheads in tow. With such injuries, it would seem foolish to go anywhere but the hospital. Perhaps Vlad underestimated the old man's willingness to keep secrets even from his old benefactors. And here I thought this would just be a chance to spit on his worthless grave. 

"What do we do now, my love?" Paulina asked aloud in a soft, monotone voice. 

In the past there were many rumors about some of Utonium's inventions. They say he even created a compound that could make a person immortal. Vlad considered them to be fairy tales, and nothing more. Danny Phantom's voice grew eager as he continued to speak into her mind. But it seems there may have been more truth to it than he ever imagined. Follow them, but remain out of sight. 

Paulina looked across the horizon, her body flashing into its semi-ghostly form as she approached the edge of the building. "Yes, my love." Paulina floated up from the roof, and her body vanished from sight.

* * *

Dani laid Kim down on the steel table in the middle of what looked like a basement laboratory. The walls and floor were lined with stainless steel, and countless beakers and test tubes lined the walls with various pieces of equipment Dani couldn't hope to name. Blossom rushed away from the table directly to a large vial sitting against the wall. It was a clear tub filled with pitch-black liquid. The only marking on it was a giant white X on the side. Blossom placed her hand on a small node in front of the vial, and a light flickered around the vial before falling dark. 

Danny looked down at Kim's limp form, then up at Blossom. "What are we going to do? Are you a doctor?" 

"No. But she gave her life to protect mine. I'll do whatever it takes to save hers." Blossom opened the top of the giant vial and used a ladle to pour some of the black liquid into a small beaker, which she quickly carried toward Kim's table. 

"What is that stuff?" Dani asked. 

"A miracle in a bottle." Blossom stuck a syringe into the vial and filled it completely with the liquid, making sure all the air was out with a tap on the needle. "If it's not already too late." She reached down and jabbed the needle into Kim's arm. 

When the syringe was empty Blossom set it aside on a nearby tray, never taking her eyes away from Kim's face. There were several minutes of tense waiting, before at last they heard a desperate gasp for air and saw Kim's chest begin moving once again. 

Kim coughed and rolled to her side, curling up on the table as she coughed up a small puddle of blood on the stainless steel floor. "Ugh..." Kim collapsed back onto the table, her breath coming in deep, pained gasps. "Feel like crap..." 

Blossom placed a hand on her shoulder with a comforting smile. "It'll get better as it spreads deeper through your system." Kim nodded and let her head fall back on the table, closing her eyes. 

"I can't believe it. I thought for sure she was a goner." Dani shook her head and looked up at Blossom. "It really is a miracle." 

Blossom smiled. "Just the miracle of science." She turned to walk across the room again to the large vat of black liquid, placing a hand on its smooth surface. "This was my father's greatest creation, Chemical X. Its regenerative properties are so great that it can make a person completely indestructible, and give them the strength of ten thousand men." She turned to look back at Dani. "It can even make one immortal... or in some cases, create a completely new life." 

Dani stared at her in awe, then shook her head. "If it's so powerful, why isn't it available to everyone? This stuff could cure countless diseases, and save millions of people." 

Blossom's face remained a solemn mask. "Because such power can also destroy countless lives in the wrong hands." Dani moved her gaze to the vat of Chemical X, suddenly thinking about what would happen if her dark side got a hole of this stuff. A cure to his disease, immortality, and unlimited strength all at once. The thought made Dani shudder in horror. 

A grunt drew Dani's attention back to Kim, who was sitting up. Her face had regained much of its color. In fact, other than the tears and bloodstains on her dress, she looked like she was in peak physical condition. 

"Wow, I feel... incredible." Kim clenched her fist and flexed her bicep. "Like I could take on the world." 

"You probably could. But I think the chemical has done its job." Blossom filled a syringe with black liquid from a second, smaller bottle. 

"I can't thank you enough for this, Miss Utonium." Kim smiled. 

"Well, you already saved my life. I suppose that's thanks enough." Blossom smiled. "And please, call me Blossom." 

"Oh, that was no big. I'd jump in front of a homicidal shadow for pretty much anybody." Kim smiled. 

Blossom smirked and jammed the needle into the younger girl's arm. "There's a thin line between bravery and stupidity, y'know." 

"I like to think I walk that line pretty well." Kim rubbed her arm once the older woman withdrew the needle and walked to the other side of the basement again. Kim turned to look up at Dani, whose ghostly form was still giving on a slight, white aura around her. "So what's your story?" 

"Kind of long." Dani blushed. 

"Well, there's no need to talk about it in this cold basement." Blossom said from the other side of the room. Kim and Dani looked over as she pressed her hand to the small console in front of the Chemical X vat, and a light flickered around it once again. Blossom turned back to them with a kind smile. "Perhaps we should learn more about each other upstairs where it's more comfortable. I'll make you both some cocoa for saving my life." 

"That sounds good." Kim stood from the steel table, straightening out her ripped dress. "But I should call my parents and my boyfriend first. Let them know I'm not dead." 

"That is a good idea." Blossom turned to Dani. "You can drop the disguise, Dani. I saw you transform." 

"Right." Dani nodded and let the rings of light change her body back into its normal human form. Kim looked surprised, but Blossom was unfazed. 

"Like I said, we have much to talk about." With a smile Blossom turned to lead the two teenagers up to the living room for a nice, long talk.

* * *

Paulina's body faded into visibility again as she approached the vat near the wall, letting her arms dangle at her sides along with the white cape that flowed down her back. She heard a dark voice chuckle gleefully inside of her mind as she approached the vat. The ultimate power of endless regeneration. Immortality. This is precisely what we have been searching for, Paulina. This is exactly what I need. 

"It's finally over." Paulina smiled. "You'll be whole again." 

I will indeed. As soon as you claim the Chemical-X. Take it, and give me my freedom. Danny's mental voice was shuddering in excitement. 

Paulina approached the vat of Chemical-X, one hand reaching out to take it. She could feel Danny Phantom's eagerness deep in her mind, until suddenly an electrical surge ripped through her arm, rushing through her body. Paulina let out a pained shriek and stumbled back away from the vat, collapsing to the floor in a heap. She groaned as her body twitched, her breath coming in deep gasps. 

That energy... it's like an accursed Ghost Shield. Danny's voice was strained. 

"What do we do? Can we destroy the machines?" Paulina asked. 

"Do it, and you'll call down a Hell from which you cannot escape. Blossom is no fool." A deep hiss echoed through the steel laboratory. Paulina rose to her feet quickly, casting about in search of its source. She stopped when she spotted the shadow from the memorial service standing near the wall, its green eyes the only thing that let her know it wasn't just another shadow. "But neither am I." 

It's the creature from before, Danny noted. What does it want? 

"What do you want?" Paulina spoke aloud. 

"Revenge." The shadow moved away from the wall. "Blossom and her sisters took everything from me, and I want them to pay. But that girl is too much to handle." 

With the chemical-X, I could destroy Dani Phantom in a heartbeat. 

"Danny... I... could destroy her. With that." Paulina pointed to the vat of chemical-X. "But we can't touch it." 

"Blossom has it armed to the gills with defense mechanisms no doubt... but it's locked with a genetic key. We need her DNA, or an identical DNA source, to open it." The shadow approached the scanner in front of the Chemical-X vat, peering down at it. "I know those powers you displayed just now. I saw another with the same powers in the darkness I have been trapped in for almost 50 years." 

"50 years?" Paulina blinked. 

"Yes. And I know that with your powers, you could control someone to make them open this lock for us." 

"Blossom is still guarded by Dani. We couldn't get close enough." Paulina spoke aloud what Danny Phantom said in her mind. 

"Who said anything about using Blossom for this?" The shadow turned back to them. "I know another... if you will help me, I will lead you to her. And with her body, we can reach the Chemical-X." 

Agree with her, but we must remain cautious. Danny Phantom said instantly. This gift is far too generous to have no greater price. 

"Agreed." Paulina hesitated for a moment. "But first, tell me who you are." 

The shadow replied simply. "I am Mange." 

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies 

Mange and Dark Danny plan to bring the entire world to its knees with the awesome power of Chemical-X, while the heroes attempt to regroup and assess the situation. 

Episode 17: Rebirths - The Dark Soul 


	17. Rebirths The Dark Soul

(Notes: "The Powerpuff Girls" is owned by Cartoon Network. "Kim Possible" is owned by Disney. Flashbacks from the "Dragonverse" Powerpuff Girls series, Episode "108: Specter of the Night")

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Just after Dani and Sam get Sam's things moved to FentonWorks, the Fenton family is called away to the city of Townsville to attend a memorial service for one of the world's greatest scientific minds, Professor Utonium. But the service goes wrong when a mysterious shadow calling herself "Mange" crashes the party and attacks the mayor, Blossom. Kim Possible and Dani Phantom fight her off, but not before Kim is grievously wounded. A dose of Chemical-X revives Kim, but now Dark Danny and Paulina are on to the secrets of this powerful Chemical, and with Mange's help, devise a plan to get it for themselves.

Episode 17: Rebirths – The Dark Soul

The silence in the living room of Blossom Utonium's suburban home was deafening, as Blossom and Kim both stared at Dani with wide, awestruck eyes. Dani looked away from them and crossed her arms over her chest as her cheeks turned hot at the attention.

It was several minutes before Blossom spoke in a kind voice. "Well, it sounds like you've had a pretty difficult life yourself." She leaned back against the thick cushions of her recliner, letting her arms rest by her sides. "As for keeping your secret, I wouldn't worry about it. The people gathered there know how to keep a secret. Most of them have been keeping mine for a long time."

"Your secret?" Kim looked at her. "Don't tell me you have a secret identity too!"

"My identity was never a real secret." Blossom chuckled. "It's just in the past. And I prefer to keep it that way." Her smile faded and she sat up straighter. "But I can't believe she would return after all these years. I thought she was gone forever."

"The shadow, you mean." Dani looked at Blossom. "Who is she? What is she?"

Blossom pursed her lips thoughtfully for a few moments, then leaned back and straightened out her shirt as she spoke. "Her name is Mange. A being composed of pure energy, and created from the mind of a girl. A girl with superpowers, not unlike yourself." Blossom gestured to Dani.

"What girl?" Kim leaned forward curiously.

"My sister." Blossom's eyes glazed over as her lips curled into a wistful smile. "We were known as the Powerpuff Girls. Invulnerability, super strength, flight, some people called us the perfect superheroes. When we stood together, there wasn't anything that could stand against us. But evil doesn't always fight fair… and we were still young. We were strong, but we could be caught at our weakest moments alone… like Buttercup was."

* * *

Buttercup was flying through the air about halfway home when her hypersensitive hearing picked up the blare of a security alarm ringing out over the city. What timing, she just wanted to get home and get some rest. But it was her duty to do what she could to help. She didn't even know if her sisters heard it and she would likely get there first if she went now.

So she tried to steel herself for a rumble and turned to fly in the direction of the blaring siren. It was coming from Townsville hospital? Who in their right mind robbed a hospital?

As she neared she caught a glimpse of Ace running along the sidewalk away from it. The Gangrene Gang, the rest of them were probably still inside. Well she could take care of them later. She should make sure the leader didn't get away first.

So Buttercup streaked down toward him, but he managed to turn a corner into an alley before she caught up with him. She streaked up to the alley entrance and saw immediately he'd just run into a dead end. This was kind of strange since Ace new Townsville as well as anybody, he should have known there was nowhere to go...

"Alright, I don't know what you're up to Ace, but you're not getting away with it!" She said raising her fists in front of her.

"Actually Buttercup, now that you're here, the fun's about to start." Ace replied, smirking to himself underneath his shades. Without warning three pinpricks seemed to jam into the back of her neck, making her yelp in pain and surprise.

She reached behind her to pluck them out one at a time. They looked like hypodermic needles, but whatever was in them was gone now. Inside of her body. She didn't have time to ask what was in them before she began to feel weak; her arms and legs shaking uncontrollably. She looked behind her to see the rest of the gang gathered in the small alley, blocking her exit.

"Sedatives and tranquilizers, courtesy of the Townsville hospital." Ace said, chuckling to himself. Buttercup fell to her knees weakly, she couldn't even fly like this, and she couldn't think of any other way out. She could only watch as Blossom and Bubbles streaked right by outside the alley, not noticing the gang surrounding her. She felt so weak she couldn't even make herself yell to them for help... "There they go to save the hospital... too bad they don't know that YOU need saving too."

"Yess, let'ss get thiss over with." Snake hissed eagerly as he took one menacing step toward her. Normally she would have wiped the floor with each and every one of them, but the sedatives pumping through her body made it so she could barely move let alone fight. There was no way out that she could see...

She gasped as Ace grabbed her by the collar of her dress, holding her up. "You know I thought you might want to be a member of our gang once, but I guess you're just too stubborn." He told her as he raised one fist, aiming it straight at her helpless, dangling body. The rest of the gang began to move in as well, blocking all hope of escape. She guessed if there was one good thing about this whole situation, the sedatives were dulling her pain...

* * *

"You make lots of enemies when you do what we do." Blossom finished. "But we never thought they would be smart enough to neutralize our powers like that."

"Yeah, I know how that goes." Kim sighed. "Sometimes it seems like the fighting never ends."

"And it doesn't until you stop fighting." Blossom smirked. "It's a cruel world. You'll face more hardship in doing the right thing than you ever will just looking the other way."

"So what about the shadow? What does it have to do with Buttercup?" Dani asked.

"She was found shivering and in pain by one of our friends. Mange was born a little while later…"

* * *

Finally Ace burst out into the junkyard itself, running through the piles of twisted steel and rubber, tying to lose the thing that was on his tail. He didn't get far though, as the black shadow simply zipped through the darkness, appearing right in front of him in under an instant.

He tried to screech to a halt, and wound up slipping to the ground on his back. "Look I don't know what I did but I didn't mean it, alright? Just get out of here!" He yelled at her. She paid him no heed however as she floated closer to him, her eyes beginning to pulse bright green in anticipation.

Without a word she grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him off the ground. "Come on man, I'll give you anything, I have cash, I can help you out, just name it!" He pleaded pathetically, pulling at her arm.

"Die." She replied, raising her other fist into the air behind her. A string of spikes appeared around the rim of it, aiming straight at him as they glinted in the pale moonlight.

"No! Stop!" He yelled desperately as he tried to free himself one last time. Finally she thrust her arm toward him, her eyes pulsing with satisfaction.

* * *

"Buttercup's anger triggered a power she never knew she had before. The power of astral projection. While she was asleep it began to lash out."

"So Buttercup is Mange?" Kim asked.

Blossom shook her head. "Not anymore. A few years later one of our nemesis' found a way to take control of the energy that created Mange. Somehow, this split Buttercup into two separate people. Mange became her own identity, her own being…" Blossom shook her head. "But Buttercup decided to take full control, and banished Mange from her body. Mange disappeared one day and we never saw her again. I thought she was gone forever, but somehow she's returned."

"Just leaves so many questions." Kim shook her head. "The most important of which is, how do we stop her?"

Dani sat up straight. "I think I could take her if we can find her."

"But finding her is the problem." Blossom shook her head. "She's not stupid, and last time we saw her, her mind was still connected to Buttercup's." Her eyes went wide suddenly with a stunned gasp. "Mange said she wants revenge against all of us…"

It took Dani a moment to put it together before her eyes went wide. "Buttercup's in danger."

* * *

The whirring motor of a treadmill in the middle of the room was accompanied by the steady thumping of a pair of feet coming down upon it. A driving musical beat composed of drums and a bass guitar drowned out the sound of horns and sirens from outside the window, which was open to let the cool breeze waft through the small apartment. The window was looking out across the town of Citiesville, a massive collection of glass and cement buildings that touched the clouds as far as the eye could see.

Buttercup's body was covered in sweat though she kept her breath coming in deep, steady gasps as the timer on the treadmill neared the 90-minute point. She could feel her joints beginning to ache after the long run, but she refused to stop. In her prime she'd run for at least two hours a day, and that wasn't including the time she spent weightlifting. She'd spent her whole life keeping herself in top physical condition. She wouldn't let herself slip now.

When the timer went off Buttercup reached forward to turn off the treadmill, coming to a stop and leaning against the handlebars to regain her breath. Her hands were gripping the handlebars so hard they turned white, but she didn't pay attention to them. Her gaze fell on the picture standing on the front of the treadmill, of a man with short red hair holding a baby barely three years old. They man was smiling, though the baby's face was red with the force of her fearsome screams.

Her breath slowing, Buttercup snatched the picture form the treadmill and moved across the small living room toward the bathroom. She placed the picture back in its traditional place on the end table beside the sofa as she passed. Her progress toward the bathroom was halted when she heard a sharp bang from the direction of the bedroom. She froze immediately to listen. Soon she heard another bang, this one louder than the first.

Buttercup crept toward the closet near her front door, pulling it open and removing a small shoebox from the top, where it sat beside a blue Kevlar vest from her days on the Citiesville Police Department. The short black handgun sat comfortably in the palm of her hand as she dropped the shoebox and expertly loaded it with bullets.

"Whoever's there, show yourself with your hands up and you won't get hurt!" Buttercup gripped the weapon in both hands, moving toward the bedroom. She could hear something scraping the carpet, accompanied by a soft whisper. The voice seemed familiar, but it was too soft to recognize. "I'm warning you, I'm a member of the CPD, and will use deadly force if necessary."

"Oh, it's very necessary." Buttercup whirled when a voice came from behind her, but suddenly a black tendril whipped across the back of her hand, leaving a deep, bloody gash across her flesh. Buttercup yelped in pain as her hand twitched, dropping the gun to the floor with a thunk. "Too bad you've become a mere mortal, or you might have the strength to make good on that threat."

"Mange!?" Buttercup stepped back, nursing her wounded hand.

"Hello, mother." Mange's voice was a mocking growl as she approached, her glowing green eyes shining with hatred. "Are you as glad to see me as I am to see you?"

"I thought you were gone. Forever."

"Forever isn't as long as it used to be." Mange raised her arms in front of her, which formed into a pair of long, black blades easily twice as long as Mange was tall. "You've had a longer life than you deserve. The only question now, is how should you die? Perhaps I'll gut you and let you die slowly… or maybe I'll remove your head and get it over with quickly."

"You're not getting away with this." Buttercup clenched her fists and struck a combat stance. "I'll fight if I have to."

"Oh, wait. That's right." Mange laughed and shook her head. "Perhaps I'll let you live to watch as you betray your own sister. Would you like that, Buttercup?"

Buttercup growled. "I'd never do that!"

"If you had a choice." Another, younger female voice came from behind her. Buttercup whirled in surprise, but barely had time to take note of the teenage girl before one of her hands latched onto her throat with a surprisingly strong grip. Buttercup gasped and tried to pull her hand away, but whenever she tried to touch the girl, her hands just went right through her. "Which sadly isn't the case."

"What are… what…" Buttercup's eyes went wide when she felt something in her own mind. Green energy was flowing down the girl's arm and into Buttercup's body, spreading throughout in an unstoppable wave. "Wait… no… get this out of me!" Buttercup screamed, but the energy didn't stop. It moved down her limbs and into her mind, where she heard a deep hiss of a voice speak in a mocking tone.

Fight to your heart's desire. It makes no difference. Buttercup's body tensed, but she couldn't fight off the energy. Suddenly she felt her strength give out and she collapsed to her knees in front of the more normal-looking girl in the pink shirt and white calf-length pants. Buttercup tried to move, to do anything, but her body refused to respond. No matter how she fought she couldn't move.

A crash could be heard from the living room, accompanied by the familiar voice of her twin sister, Blossom. "Buttercup! Are you in here!? Buttercup! You have to come with us! Something's happening!"

Buttercup wanted to scream, to cry out, to tell her what was happening. But instead she calmly rose to her feet and walked into the living room with a serene smile on her face, ignoring Mange and the strange girl who stayed in the bedroom. "I'm glad to see you, Blossom." She said against her will. "Let's get back to Townsville."

* * *

On the way back to Townsville, Blossom explained the situation to Buttercup. She took it all amazingly well, with calmness and grace that Dani envied. They were taking Blossom's car back, so the two sisters sat in the front while Dani and Kim sat in the back seat in companionable silence. Dani amused herself playing with her ponytail while Kim stared out the car window, looking bored with the two-hour trip.

"Buttercup…" Blossom's voice trailed off for a moment before she spoke again. "Why didn't you come? I know you got my invitation to the memorial service."

Buttercup shrugged. "I had plans today."

"Plans? We're talking about our father's funeral!"

"Of course." Buttercup cleared her throat. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry. It's just… I didn't know how to say goodbye, y'know?"

Blossom's voice softened. "I guess I can understand that. But you still should've been there."

"Sorry." Buttercup's simple apology was the last word spoken between them as the car lapsed into silence.

Kim looked away from the window and leaned closer to Dani. "Almost hard to believe she's a former superhero, isn't it?"

Dani shook her head. "It's hard to say goodbye to someone important to you."

"Yeah, I guess so." Kim moved away again to look out the window for the rest of the trip back to Townsville.

They wound through the suburban housing area around the business center of the city. Occasionally they could hear the sound of radios or televisions from inside houses or on porch decks, where the news was talking about the incident at Professor Utonium's memorial service. Dani was relieved to hear that nobody seemed to be talking about the identity of the mysterious ghost girl. So many people knowing made Dani uneasy, but it seemed Blossom was right when she said they wouldn't reveal her secret.

They pulled up in front of the Utonium residence to find that there was already a car in the driveway, and the front door of the building was left cracked open. The four of them exchanged a glance as they climbed out of the car, then turned to head toward the front door to see what was going on.

When they entered they found a man about Blossom's age sitting in the living room with the combined Fenton and Possible families, all of whom were looking apprehensive. As the front door creaked open, all eyes turned toward them.

"Kim!" Anne Possible screamed as she and her husband ran around the couch to greet them. They both wrapped their daughter in a massive joint hug, crushing her between them. "Oh my God! I can't believe you're okay! It's a miracle!" There were tears streaming down her cheeks. "It's a miracle!"

"Mom, really, I'm okay." Kim sounded irritated, but her expression was one of gentle understanding. "I'm okay." She wrapped her arms around her mother, closing her eyes and resting her cheek on her shoulder.

"Dani!" Sam rose from a chair to run toward them, throwing her arms around Dani and planting a deep kiss on her lips once they were together. "Everything's okay, this man showed up and told everyone to keep everything that happened a secret. And get this, everyone actually agreed!"

"He's always been pretty persuasive. Haven't you, Mike?" Blossom smiled.

"All in the service of the town, Blossom." The man named Mike smiled back.

"Dani." Jazz approached Dani from the side and gave her a tender hug while their parents walked up behind her. "I'm glad everything turned out for the best."

"It's not over yet." Dani stepped back. "Mange is still out there, and she's still going to try to get to Blossom and Buttercup. We can't go back home until we find a way to put her out of commission."

"It's nothing we need you here to take care of." Buttercup turned to fix Dani with a strangely venomous glare. "With the two of us here, I'm sure we can handle anything Mange can throw at us."

"Don't underestimate them, Buttercup." Blossom stepped forward. "Kim has a strong will, and Dani's powers are unlike anything I've ever seen. Their help might prove invaluable."

Buttercup still looked nervous about the whole thing, but she reluctantly nodded in agreement. "Alright. I'll trust your judgment, Blossom." Blossom gave her a curious gaze for a few moments, but said nothing more.

"I think it would be best if we stayed as close as possible until we get this mess cleared up." Kim said once she disentangled herself from her parents.

Blossom smiled. "The house is kind of small for such a large number of people, but you're welcome to stay if you want to. Buttercup can stay in the master bedroom with me, the Fentons can have our old room upstairs, and the Possibles can take the guest room."

"Oh, we couldn't impose like that." Maddie started to complain.

"Nonsense, your kids are saving my life. I'd actually feel better if they were in the house." Blossom smirked.

"Oh, well, I guess that's okay then. I'll call the airline and see if I can postpone our flight for a few days. Where's that phone?"

"I'll show you, right this way." Blossom gestured toward the kitchen, and turned to head in there with Maddie, leaving everyone else standing in the living room together.

Buttercup looked around at the others for a moment, then turned to head toward the stairs, almost as if she was retreating from some imaginary battle. Kim stared after her with a suspicious gaze, but nobody else took note of anything strange.

"The rest of us should try to get some rest." Anne Possible wrapped her arms around her daughter again, as if to keep her safe from some invisible attacker. "And to make things easier, I'll order us some pizza." She smiled. Nobody complained.

* * *

Paulina sat on the roof of a building near the Utonium's residence, holding her knees up against her chest and shivering against the evening breeze. It was strange, to suddenly have nobody in her mind speaking to her. She'd gotten accustomed to it over the last several months. It felt strange being alone again, even though Mange was perched on the roof a short distance away. She still felt lonely.

She watched through the three second story windows as the Fenton family set up camp. The parents claimed the bed while Dani, Sam, and Jazz were forced to fend for the sleeping bags. It looked like Sam and Dani had decided to share one, because they nestled down at the food of the bed as the sun faded completely beyond the horizon.

Paulina just watched them with a blank stare. She remembered wanting that sort of love. She remembered dreaming about it in the days after she'd joined with Danny Phantom. But she hadn't had that dream in a long time. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't had any dreams for a while. Danny would spend his nights using her mind to plot and plan what he would do once he regained his full power. There was no stopping his ranting, and there was no escaping him.

Mange's voice shook with anticipation. "It's only a matter of minutes now. The ghost will gain the power of Chemical X, and the Powerpuff Girls will pay for ripping me away from my son. They will pay the same way he did. With their lives."

"What happened to your son?" Paulina asked curiously.

"I spent months trying to track him down after that child released me from my black prison. And when I finally found him… the trail ended at the Townsville Cemetery. He'd been killed by a drunk driver." Mange narrowed her eyes. "Can you imagine it? When I was with him, I would never have allowed them to make him mortal. He was almost a God! But because they were obsessed with being normal, they allowed him to die. I could have saved him if they had not banished me into the darkness!" Mange climbed to her feet, the shining green aura of her eyes doubling in intensity. "They will feel the pain of their mortality! The pain he felt when they let their selfish desires destroy his life!"

Paulina scooted away from the dark figure, suddenly frightened out of her mind. Was this what she was holding in her heart all this time? Was this the sort of creature she was helping? Her mind reeling, she turned back to the building, where the sleeping Fentons were illuminated through the windows by the silver light of the moon that shone unhindered from overhead.

Suddenly she saw someone slip past one of the windows, vanishing too quickly for Paulina to recognize it. But she had a feeling she knew who it was. It was only a matter of minutes now. And Danny Phantom would be freed from his bondage to mortal beings. She'd been fighting for this moment for months… but now that her mind was unclouded by his influence, her heart was filled with dread.

* * *

Buttercup could only watch as her body crept down the old familiar staircase, stepping lightly so as not to alert anyone in the house to something strange. The shadows cast across the living room by the pale moonlight from the windows seemed strangely eerie and unfamiliar. But then, it was difficult to be comfortable when her body continued to act of its own volition. She'd been trying to scream, to yell, to warn Blossom. All to no avail.

She crept across the living room toward the basement door, and her hand reached out to grip the doorknob. Buttercup mentally trembled as the doorknob began to turn, but suddenly an arm wrapped around her throat and she was thrown back in a powerful martial arts move. Buttercup slammed into the floor face-first with a pained groan and looked up to see Kim Possible standing over her in a pair of pajama bottoms and a tank top.

"Sneaking around in the middle of the night? How very unheroic of you." Kim smirked.

Buttercup rose to her feet with her fists clenched in anger. "Get out of my way. You have no idea what you're messing with."

"I think I'm ready to find out." Kim stepped back closer to the door, bending her legs in a combat stance.

Buttercup brought her hands up and cracked her knuckles. She grinned as ecto energy appeared in her palms, casting an eerie green glow across Kim's face. Kim's eyes went wide, but she didn't have time to react before the energy slammed into her chest, sending her sailing back into the basement door. The old wood shattered under the weight of her body and she began to tumble down the stairs into the pitch-black basement.

"Pathetic." Buttercup shook her head and started down the stairs.

She could hear the pathetic, broken moans of the redheaded hero lying concealed in the darkness. She raised her hand and let the glow of an ecto-blast contained in her palm illuminate the darkness, but she still couldn't see the floor from this height. Looking around, she did find a light switch beside the door, which she flipped with one hand. The overhead lights flared to life… and revealed the room to be empty.

"But where did…?" Buttercup stepped down the staircase, then gasped when she felt a hand grab her wrist. She looked down to see that the staircase was a series of steps suspended over the floor, and clinging to the bottom of the staircase, Kim was holding onto her ankle.

"What are you looking for down here?" Kim twisted her ankle and yanked it through the gap in the steps. Buttercup howled in pain as she collapsed to the steps on one knee, her other entire leg pinned between two of the steps as Kim continued to pull her down. Kim dropped to the floor and moved beside the steps and turned to look up at her with a satisfied smirk on her face. "You're not going anywhere until you tell me the truth."

With a sneer, Buttercup's body turned intangible and she fell straight through the staircase, landing in front of Kim with a heavy thud. She straightened out her back and stared Kim in the eyes, seeing them full of surprise and a tinge of fear. A grin spread across Buttercup's lips and she brought her fist around in a quick punch, but the attack spurred Kim into action.

Kim ducked her body back to avoid the blow, and kicked one of her legs off the ground. Her foot slammed into Buttercup's face while Kim used the momentum from her kick to pirouette into the air, winning into another kick with her other leg. This kick went straight through Buttercup's head without touching it, leaving Kim to land in a heavy crouch, completely exposed to an attack.

Buttercup launched a powerful ecto-blast into Kim's back, which drove her face-first into the hard steel floor. Kim yowled and reached up to clutch her nose, her legs twitching and kicking in pain and fury. Buttercup approached to stand over her, her hands glowing with powerful green ecto-energy as she aimed her hands straight at the young girl's head. Kim raised her eyes from her hands in time to see Buttercup standing over her, her eyes going wide in fear. She didn't have time to move.

"What the-!?" A voice from the stairs drew both of their attention back to it. A young boy was standing in the basement entrance, looking down at them with wide eyes.

Buttercup raised one glowing hand, but Kim's scream rang out first. "Tim, go! Get the others!" The boy gasped and whirled to run from the basement just before Buttercup's ecto-blast ripped into the wall where his head had been, burning the steel into a dark black color.

"Hey!" Buttercup whirled to find Kim on her feet, her lip curled into a snarl. "Don't you try to roast my bother!" One fist lashed out quicker than Buttercup could blink, knocking her back toward the staircase. A swift kick to the side doubled her over and knocked her to the solid steel floor. Kim whirled toward her, bringing her leg up in a sharp axe-kick, but her foot came down right through Buttercup's body without touching it.

Buttercup launched herself up from the floor, her fist arching through the air in a violent uppercut. But Kim weaved out of the way and launched another kick, which Buttercup blocked with a powerful outward thrust. She grabbed Kim's ankle with both hands and yanked her forward, but rather than being yanked off-balance, Kim leapt on one foot and landed easily on the floor, kicking off with her free leg to thrust it over her trapped leg toward Buttercup's face.

It hit home with a loud crack and buttercup Stumbled to the side, freeing Kim to land in a crouch. Without fully turning around Kim's leg shot back, slamming into Buttercup's side. The force of the kick sent her stumbling to the side until she fell to the floor with a pained expression on her face. Kim whirled toward Buttercup and put her hands up in front of her, trying to ignore her heavy breath and racing heart.

Buttercup grinned and burst out laughing from her position on the ground, her stomach rumbling in mirth. "What is so funny!?" Kim demanded.

"I'm through playing these games with a mere mortal." Buttercup climbed to her feet as the ectoplasm inside of her began to separate. Kim's eyes went wide and she stumbled back as a pair of ghostly boys appeared on either side of Buttercup, each of their faces twisted into a malicious grin. All three of them raised their hands, with began to glow with powerful ectoplasmic energy. "The games are over."

* * *

Dani stared out the window at the starlit sky overhead. She could feel Sam's body pressed against hers inside the small sleeping bag, with Sam's head resting on her shoulder. Sam's steady breath was the only thing she could hear apart from the soft whistle of the evening wind flowing in through the open, glassless windows, and each breath pleasantly tickled the side of Dani's neck.

"Dani?" Dani was surprised when she heard Sam whisper against her neck. Looking down, she now saw that Sam's sleepy eyes were open, staring up at her face with a steady gaze. "Why aren't you asleep?"

"I don't know." Dani shook her head. "I just… I feel something. Like something's wrong." Dani looked back up at the window, trying to lose herself in the tranquility of the stars. "I know it's nothing but… I can't shake it. It feels like everything's going to change before this is over."

"A bad change?" Sam asked.

Dani shook her head. "I don't know. And that worries me most of all."

"Well, I can understand you being nervous." Sam pulled herself up on top of Dani's chest, crossing her arms in front of her to stare deep into Dani's eyes. "It's impossible to know what's going to happen before this is all over. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous too."

Dani raised one of her hands, letting her fingers lightly brush across the soft flesh of Sam's cheek before moving it up into her hair, letting her fingers move through the loose locks that hung down around her face. "It's funny. It feels like the world could end any second… and I'm still not afraid." Dani smiled tenderly up at her wife, who smiled back. "Because I know I can't lose you…"

"Not ever." Sam leaned forward to press her lips to Dani's, the taste of her blueberry lipstick lingering on Dani's lips after she pulled away. "Let the world come. We'll take it. No matter what it brings."

Suddenly the door of the bedroom was flung open, slamming into the wall with a heavy crack. Sam and Dani nearly jumped out of their skin as they shot up in bed, along with their parents and Jazz, who had been asleep in a nearby sleeping bag. One of Kim's sisters stood breathless in the doorway, his eyes wide in terror. "Kim! The woman with black hair is attacking Kim! In the basement!"

Dani didn't have any more time to enjoy her wife's company. She knew she should've listened to her feeling…

* * *

Kim's arm flew up in an outward block, throwing Buttercup's leg aside and trying to launch a counterpunch, but a massive ecto-beam slammed into the back of her shoulder, knocking her into a spin. She slipped across the slick steel floor and caught herself in time to block one ghostly kick, but Buttercup's arm came around in a fierce punch, glowing with green energy. It connected with more force than Kim imagined it could. She sailed back through the air, slamming with a heavy crash into the steel table beside the vat of Chemical-X.

With a groan Kim's legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor. Her chest felt like it was on fire, and her breath was coming in quick, short gasps. When she raised her eyes from the floor she saw the two ghost boys vanish from sight as Buttercup approached with a victorious grin on her lips.

"Leave her alone!" Buttercup whirled around quickly at the sound of Dani's voice from behind her. Dani Phantom floated down through the ceiling to land on the steel floor, her fists glowing bright green. "Now!" She raised her hands in front of her, but one of Buttercup's hands shot back, snatching Kim off of the floor by her shirt-collar to hold her between them. She placed her palm against the side of her head, letting her hand glow bright green. "Wh… what? You have ghost powers?"

"It's… not… her…" Kim gasped out through the hand around her throat. She tried to struggle for a moment, but her wounds were too great and she gave up in a moment.

"I'd stay back, Dani." Buttercup locked eyes with her, grinning. "Wouldn't want her blood spread across these walls." Dani stared at her for a moment, then her eyes went wide in recognition.

"Buttercup!" Blossom shouted from the top of the stairs, where the rest of the Fentons and Possibles were trying to peek in through the door. "What are you doing!?"

"That's not your sister." Dani snarled angrily and brought her fists up. "Let them go."

"I don't think so." Buttercup jerked Kim along roughly as she moved sideways along the table, moving closer to the vat of Chemical-X. "See, this is the end, Dani. This is where my troubles end and my conquest begins." She brought her hand back sharply, slapping her palm against the genetic reader beside the vat. The light on the front blinked green and a light flashed around the vat before fading away.

"She's going for the Chemical-X!" Blossom shouted. "Stop her!"

"Too late." Buttercup shoved Kim aside suddenly and cupped her hands together into a hammer, swinging them full-force into the glass vat behind her. Blossom screamed for her to stop, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of shattering glass.

The liquid inside came rushing out onto the floor in an abrupt waterfall, washing over Buttercup body as glass shards tumbled to the floor around her. The force of the sudden wave drove her to her back as the puddle of Chemical-X spread out across the floor. Those gathered on the basement staircase could only watch in horror as Buttercup lay on the ground unconscious.

Her body shivered, and another form split off from it, sitting up in her stomach only to roll to the side. A white cape fluttered down from its shoulders across its body, which began to shimmer with ghostly light. For a moment the body began to fade away, melting into the sky around it… but then the energy came back as if sucked into a vacuum. It solidified into the form of a boy hunched over on the ground, his body concealed by the long cape.

Slowly the figure rose to its feet, facing away from them. A white flame burned atop its head, a flame that roared strong enough to lick at the ceiling over their heads. In a few moments, his shoulders began to shake and the sound of laughter filled the room, a dark sound that echoed against the steel walls. Dani could only try to back away as the laughter intensified, the figure before her spreading its arms to the side in victory.

The laughter subsided, though Danny Phantom's voice still shuddered mirthfully as he spoke. "I can feel you quaking in fear." He whirled around suddenly, his cape whipping through the air with the speed of his spin. Dani gasped and stumbled back away from him. His eyes were pulsing with blood red energy that erupted forth like flames licking at a forest. "I will show you true fear."

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Dark Danny is back and, thanks to the power of Chemical X, just might be utterly unstoppable. How is Dani supposed to save those she loves when she can barely save herself? Meanwhile, an old hero will finally get the chance to settle a score she's had for the last 50 years.

Episode 18: Rebirths – The Toughest Fighter


	18. Rebirths The Toughest Fighter

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Mange, the astral projection of Powerpuff Girl Buttercup, is revealed and plotting to take revenge against those who she believes ripped her away from her son and led him to his premature death. Working with Dark Danny, she helps him take Buttercup's body and helps him to sneak into the Utonium's home and get his hands on the powerful substance known as Chemical X. Dark Danny succeeds, and now stands before his greatest enemy, Dani, completely restored and more powerful than ever.

Episode 18: Rebirths – The Toughest Fighter

Dani stepped back in terror, her eyes widening and the breath catching in her throat. Danny Phantom's footsteps splashed through the puddle of Chemical-X that had flooded the floor of the small basement laboratory as he approached. His shifting red eyes were shining with glee, and his lips were curled into a grin that spoke of horrible thoughts underneath. Dani stumbled back, his mind ablaze with newfound fear. This was a being that knew no mercy or remorse.

"Are you going to fight me?" Danny Phantom barked out a vicious laugh, clenching his fists at his sides. "It doesn't matter to me. You're going to die either way." Suddenly he vanished in a flash of light and one fist slammed into Dani's chest. Dani howled in pain and surprise as her body flew back through the air to collide with the stairs hard enough to flip over it and slam into the wall.

"DANI!" Sam ran down the stairs to kneel beside her, putting her hands on her arms. Dani groaned and opened her eyes, trying to focus. But her vision remained a blur. She could only see a flickering white flame growing larger and larger.

"This is fear." Danny Phantom's voice cackled. "Sitting and watching death approach with no way to stop it. Helpless and desperate in its merciless grasp." Dani grunted shook her head. Her vision grew clearer, but she still couldn't see a way to fight this being. One punch had nearly liquefied Dani against the wall, and he was just toying with her. Blossom hadn't been joking about the power of Chemical-X. It was truly an awesome, fearsome, thing.

"Are you going to do the right thing? Fight to the end for those you love? Or sit and accept death?" Danny grinned. "As my gift for creating me, I'll let you choose how you die."

Dani raised her arms from the floor, slipping them around Sam's waist, pulling her close. "You may be stronger than me…" Dani huffed. "But even you still can't catch what you can't see." Without warning Dani and Sam vanished from sight.

Danny blinked in surprise, then broke out into uproarious laughter. "You abandon your family! HEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I can't believe it! Mr. Do-the-right-thing ditches the dead weight and saves his own skin! This is perhaps better than simply killing you! Now I can let you squirm." With a broad grin lighting up his dark face, Danny turned his gaze on those standing on the staircase. Anne, James, Tim, and Jim Possible, along with Jack, Maddie, and Jasmine Fenton. "Or better yet. I can watch them squirm."

Those on the stairs tried to move toward the living room, but a black aura suddenly burst through the door, shoving them down the steps in a heap. They screamed and cried out as they fell and tripped over one another all the way to the bottom, where they lay in a heap moaning in pain.

Mange slid into the room at the top of the stairs, her green eyes shining in satisfaction. "It's done. Now just leave me with my prize."

"Of course. I have no objections." Danny grabbed the unconscious form of Kim Possible by the collar of her pajama top and threw her across the room toward her family. She slammed into her parents hard enough to drive them all back into the wall with a vicious crack. Danny's hand spread open, glowing with powerful ecto-energy, and a set of bars rose from the ground around them to form a shining green cage.

"You won't get away with this!" Blossom stepped forward, gulping down her fear in the face of this fearsome enemy. "You think you're evil? I've stared into the face of true evil. And evil never wins, no matter how strong it thinks it is."

Danny turned on her, his glittering red eyes making even the strong-willed Utonium woman think twice about making heroic speeches. "Then stop me, old woman." He barked out a laugh and raised one hand, hefting the entire ecto-case into the air without even touching it. "I could kill you in a heartbeat. But I'll leave you to the mess you never cleaned up."

With that, Danny Phantom rose into the air and phased through the ceiling, taking those in the cage with him. In the living room he found Paulina standing and waiting. Her face looked gaunt and pale, as if she had died in the night and simply hadn't realized it yet. Danny gave her a warm smile and approached her, opening his arms as he did. Paulina didn't react, just staring up at him with her wide, wet eyes.

"Paulina. You have been so faithful to me all this time." Danny placed his hands on her shoulders with a firm grip. "Such loyalty surely deserves a rich reward."

"R… really?" Paulina's eyes focused on his face. "We can really be…?"

"Together. Of course. Did you think me a liar?"

"No! Never!" Paulina smiled and wiped her eyes.

"Then come. The king and queen of the world need a home worthy of their destiny." Danny wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted into the air, flying through the ceiling and taking off toward Townsville. The ecto-cage flew behind them, holding those he'd taken from the basement as they skimmed the tops of the Townsville skyscrapers. Soon, they approached the center of the city, where a volcano had lain dormant for almost 50 years.

On top of the volcano sat a massive observatory, made of steel that stretched straight down into the magma that continued to flow underneath. At its creation, it must surely have been a magnificent structure, but it had clearly been abandoned for a very long time. The steel walls and electronics on the outside had rusted over, and the telescope's lens was shattered.

Danny floated them through the walls toward the containment cells, dumping his hostages into one of the small steel rooms carelessly while he set Paulina down outside of the cell with him.

"Don't let them escape, no matter what." Danny looked down at her sternly. "We'll begin planning our next moves when I return."

"Huh? Where are you going?" Paulina looked up at him in confusion.

Danny's eyes flared with blood red light as his lip curled back into a sneer. "I have a score to settle."

* * *

"This is such a pleasure." Mange crept down the stairs, tendrils of shadow reaching out like a spider's legs to carry her down the large steps. Blossom moved back away from her, but there was no retreat. "No one to save you. The only substance capable of giving you the power to fight polluted and useless on the floor. All hope of seeing tomorrow coming to an end before your very eyes. Yes, this is a fitting end for you." 

"Mange, it doesn't have to be this way." Blossom's shoes splashed through the Chemical-X that lay across the floor, now too dirty and polluted to risk using. "You were one of us! You're a part of Buttercup! You can't really mean to hurt us!"

"I am no part of you!" Mange howled. "I am Mange! Not Buttercup! And I was that child's mother, and I will not let you get away with letting him die!" Mange brought both of her arms together in front of her. The darkness folded together into the form of a massive javelin that she pointed straight for Blossom's heart. "You and your desire to be mortal are what allowed him to die! You got rid of me and doomed him to oblivion!"

"We didn't-" Blossom began.

"ENOUGH!" Mange brought her arms back and began to thrust forward, but a pair of strong arms reached around her from behind suddenly, halting her in her tracks. "What!?" Mange turned her head to the side, her eyes going wide.

Buttercup stood behind her, no taller than the shadow with arms and legs rounded off at the ends, with a pair of unnaturally large green eyes glaring hatefully into her own. As she watched, the gray hairs that the more mature Buttercup had grown were just fading to black, and even shaping themselves into the Powerpuff Girl's signature style. Her eyes glowed bright red in anger and a growl could be heard from her throat.

"Get away from my sister!" Buttercup brought a fist up, and slammed it down on Mange's head. The shadow surged into the floor like a drop of water, but it quickly sprang back, though it moved a distance away before reforming into Mange's body.

"Buttercup!" Blossom stared in awe. Of course, the Chemical-X had swept over them both… it just took longer for Buttercup to regain consciousness because her body had taken time to resume its original Chemical-X powered state.

"You." Mange growled in hate, her eyes flaring in anger. "Are you going to try to talk me into not killing you as well? Talk me into forgetting what you've done?"

"Why bother? I'll just kick your butt until you can't think conscious thoughts anymore." Buttercup stretched out her arms as she approached Mange, warming up. "I haven't felt so strong in a very long time." She grinned. "I need to see if I'm really as strong as I used to be. Guess you make a decent punching bag." Suddenly the Powerpuff Girl surged forward in a beam of green light.

Mange weaved to the side at the last possible second as a formless shifting shadow, letting the Powerpuff Girl barrel right past her and into the steel wall. Her tiny body smashed into the steel, and shattered it on impact. Blossom ducked in surprise to avoid several large pieces that came her way. Buttercup emerged from the hole she'd created, covered in dirt from the bare Earth behind her with a grin on her face.

"Oh yeah. That's the stuff." The Powerpuff Girl yanked herself out of the wall, marching toward Mange with a focused expression on her face.

"You have no remorse for what you've done." Mange spat her words like venom. "But I will make you regret it! I swear I will!" She whirled and bounded toward the basement staircase.

"You're not getting away from me!" Buttercup took off from the floor in a flash of green light, trailing the shadow straight up to the basement door where they vanished from Blossom's sight.

"Buttercup! Wait!" Blossom started to rush forward, far too late. Her sister was already gone. Blossom gritted her teeth, swearing silently to herself. The rest of the Chemical X was useless, Dani Phantom had run away, and Buttercup was focused on fighting Mange. Who was supposed to stop the psychotic ghost with the hostages? Slowly her gaze turned to the tainted puddle of Chemical X that lay on the ground.

* * *

The crisp, chill air of dawn swept across the open plains, the sound of it whipping through the grass and trees below the only sound to break the heavy silence as Dani Phantom flew away from Townsville, away from the monster she had created so long ago. That one punch still had her chest aching, probably with several; bruised bones, and her dark side was always stronger than her before. A head-on fight right now would have a predetermined conclusion she just could not accept. 

Sam hung onto her side, clinging to her with a solemn expression on her face. Sam had not complained about her decision to retreat. Suicide wasn't going to help save anybody, but getting away for a little while would give them time to figure out some sort of plan. All they had right now was gathering a bunch of their parents' ghost-hunting equipment and hoping for the best. But they knew that had a very slim chance of working.

They approached Amity Park soon enough, as the sun began to lift higher into the sky overhead. Dani floated down toward the FentonWorks building near the center of town and phased inside of it, turning into a normal human to plop down on the couch. She was panting heavily after the long flight, bringing a hand up to stroke her aching head. It took a lot of energy to fly that far.

Dani took a few moments to catch her breath before speaking. "We'll gather up the equipment as soon as I get a second to rest."

"What's the point?" Sam shot back. "That thing is way more than just a ghost now. You know what that punch did to you, and he was clearly holding back to mess with you. If he'd gone full-force he would've liquefied your ribcage."

Dani shook her head. "We can't just sit around and do nothing. We have to fight."

"But we have to do it when we know we can win. Which there's no chance of like this." Sam leaned against the back of the sofa, propping herself up on her elbows. "We need a different approach to this one. Maybe… maybe we can call in the army."

"Yeah, they'll respond well to 'come kill our ghost for us!'" Dani sighed. "The equipment we have here wouldn't even scratch that thing… but my parents aren't the only people who've developed anti-ghost technology." She sat up.

Sam blinked. "Are you talking about the Guys in White? They hate you every bit as much as they hate him, because you're a ghost too."

"Not them, just their equipment. Somehow they managed to take down my dark side, they must have something else up their sleeve after all this time." Dani tried to stand from the sofa, but her legs shook so much she collapsed to her back on the sofa again.

"Hey, relax." Sam crawled across the couch and put her hands on Dani's chest, holding her down. "You just flew several hundred miles on zero sleep. You should rest a while before flying again." She gave Dani a small smile. "There are enough ways to die without dying of exhaustion."

"Heh…" Dani yawned. "There's the optimist I married…" Her arms reached up above her to circle Sam's waist and pull her down. She let her eyes close, comforted by the soft touch of Sam's palm caressing her cheek and the feeling of her soft, lithe body against hers. It didn't take long to drift off to sleep.

* * *

The Townsville skyline was alight with the growing rays of dawn as the sun dared to approach the distant horizon. Its citizens went on about their daily business, heedless of the danger moving about right over their heads. A shadow swept through the air, bounding from rooftop to rooftop so quickly they didn't even have time to notice it wasn't a trick of their eyes before it vanished from sight again. But the long stream of green light that flew right behind it, leaving a powerful wind tunnel in its wake, clued them in that something was wrong. 

"Get away from me!" The shadow screamed in fury as it leapt from rooftop to rooftop, tendrils of darkness cracking at the stone and mortar to put distance between them.

"If you didn't wanna tangle, you should've thought of that before you messed with me!" Buttercup roared in anger, suddenly picking up speed to meet the shadow in a full-on collision that sent them both flying through the sky in a streak of black and green.

Mange's shadowy tendrils wrapped around Buttercup's body, lashing at her dress and skin with vicious whips while Buttercup's powerful arms ripped at the darkness like a wild animal, trying to rip it apart. Without warning them plunged into the side of one of Townsville's many skyscrapers, punching through the concrete and glass wall like it wasn't even there. The suddenness of it made Buttercup stumble, and her grip on Mange was suddenly broken.

Buttercup scraped the floor and helplessly spun across the large office building she'd slammed into. Its workers screamed and scrambled out of the way as chairs and desks crumbled from the impact of her body tumbling forward until she broke through the inner wall and out into the hallway. She slid across the polished tiles outside to come to a rest against the far wall, which her back hit with a resounding smack.

Mange rose up in the main room, turning to face Buttercup, who was pushing herself to her feet in the hallway. "You have no remorse, do you?" Mange growled in hatred.

"Remorse? Puh." Buttercup spit in disgust. "You think you're the only one who's had to take losing someone? Get real, you self-absorbed punk. Boston wasn't even your son. He was Brick's!"

"Shut up!" Mange lunged forward, howling in anger and throwing herself at Buttercup. Buttercup stood her ground to meet her, catching her in both arms and whirling to slam her down into the tiles. The floor crumbled under the immense impact, dropping them both into the next floor down, where they landed on top of a copy machine. Neither combatant took more than a second to recover, throwing themselves at each other once again.

Buttercup tries to grab hold of the shadow again, but Mange's body weaved out of the way like it was made of liquid, flowing through the air to reform behind her. Buttercup gasped sharply when she felt a blade penetrate her side, digging deep into her body. Slowly she turned her gaze downward, stunned to see a trickle of blood running down her green dress.

"H… how…" Buttercup gaped.

"I have been preparing for this moment, mother." Mange cackled in glee as her other arm drew back, forming into a blade the length of Buttercup's body. "Even you can be wounded. Even you can die!"

Mange brought her other arm forward in a vicious thrust, but Buttercup threw herself forward away from the attack. She groaned in pain and stumbled off of the copy machine, floating into the air away from her. She winced and brought her hands down to the wound in her side, from which a steady trickle of blood was flowing down the side of her green and black dress.

Mange held up her left arm, from which a trickle of blood began to drip to the floor. "Even as an immortal, you can still die."

Buttercup growled, her eyes beginning to glow with piercing crimson energy. "You talk too much." The energy burst from her eyes, sizzling the air in front of her as the heat rays flew at Mange. Mange leapt up out of the way, but the heat vision ways pierced through the copy machine, digging into the powerful circuitry until, in moments, the entire appliance detonated in a spectacular ball of fire.

Through the flames Buttercup and Mange exchanged a vicious glare, then took off once again through the building, ripping through walls and windows in their furious battle that would continue for hours to come.

* * *

The pale blue sky was crisp and the air contained a nice, cooling breeze without being cold. It was a perfect Spring day on the outskirts of Amity Park, one Dani would have loved to take advantage of if her family, and the entire world, weren't in danger at the hands of an invincible, insane ghost. The grassy fields outside of the city swayed in the breeze far below the two figures who flew through the sky. 

"Whoa…" Sam muttered under her breath as they came up over a certain hill to look down on the field beyond. Dani's jaw dropped when she saw the sight before them. The small elevator that led down into the Guys in White base appeared to have been ripped from the ground, but that wasn't the worst of it. The entire plateau was caved in, sunk down into the ground in a pile of dirt and grass. It looked like the entire complex had caved in on itself.

Dani flew to the hill outside of the crater in the ground, setting Sam on her feet. "Wait here, I'll see what's going on."

Sam shook her head. "I don't know about this Dani, maybe we should just look for another way."

"No time for hesitation now. No time for anything." Dani leaned close and kissed her wife tenderly on the lips, holding her hands tightly. "I promise, I'll be right back." With that, she stepped away and turned intangible, flinging herself down into the solid ground to vanish from sight.

She weaved through the thick ground, expecting to come out in the main chamber of the complex. But the Earth continued for miles, until she found pieces of steel that looked like the walls and ceiling. She moved through the ground slowly, one glowing green hand shining intangibly through the dense rock and soil as she moved around, searching for anything that wasn't buried under a mountain of Earth.

At last she emerged into an adjacent hallway that led down toward the cells she'd woken up in when she first took over Danielle's body. Her breath caught in her throat and she stumbled back against the steel wall behind her at the sight of a man hunched down against the far wall, sitting flat on his butt with his torso bent completely to one side, his eyes staring blankly from a pale, deathly face.

Dani looked up away from it, but suddenly screamed and slipped down to her back. On the ceiling there was another body, its head stuck into the solid steel while its body dangled from the flesh and bone of its neck. Dani closed her eyes and looked away, putting one hand over her mouth at the sight of it. She couldn't imagine this sort of thing. But she had a feeling she knew who was capable of it.

"Back to where it all began." A dark voice echoed through the steel hallways as a pair of footsteps marched toward her at a slow pace. Her breath coming in deep gasps, Dani opened her eyes. She ignored the bodies that she now saw littered the hallway, watching Danny Phantom approach with his hands held out to his sides. "Where I broke free from your prison. Where these… people… earned their fate." As he passed a corpse on the floor he gave it an irritable kick, sending it sliding up against the wall with a sickening splat.

Shaking in horror, Dani began to slide back along the wall. "You're a monster. A sick monster."

"Sticks and stones." Danny smirked and shook his head. "Oh relax, you pathetic excuse for a ghost. I'm not going to kill you here. I think this is far more entertaining." He approached her and knelt down in front of her, his eyes continuing to shine bright crimson with the force of Chemical-X fueled ectoplasmic evil. "There are far worse punishments to inflict on someone." He reached out suddenly, gripping her chin in one hand. "I could do anything to you. To your sister. To the love of your life. Who needs to send you to Hell when I can turn this world into a private Hell just for you?"

"Leave them alone…" Dani grunted. His fingers were digging into her flesh, threatening to crush her jaw in just the light grip he was using. "If you hate me, then kill me, but leave them out of it."

Danny Phantom leaned close to her face, whispering into her ear. "I bet you've tried to fuck her all you can since you got married. But you just lack what I can offer her." He grinned. "You'll never be able to give her what I can."

Dani's eyes flares in anger. "Stay away from her."

"But even fucking your wife seems too good for you. I wonder, what do you value most of anything else in the world…" Danny brought his other hand around, trailing it up her arm to her shoulder. "What is it that you would fight and die to protect? Your family… your wife… but simply killing them seems so unfulfilling." He grinned as his finger trailed down Dani's chest, stopping over her head. "Ah… yes… I know the most suitable punishment for you."

Dani's eyes went wide moments before Danny threw himself forward, plunging into her body intangibly. Dani screamed and lurched forward onto her knees, raising her hands to clutch at the sides of her head. She could feel the energy spreading through her body, feel the consciousness taking over her mind. She tried to resist it as hard as she could, climbing to her feet and tearing at her own head.

"Get out…" Dani grunted through gritted teeth. "Get out of me!" She whirled in desperation, slamming her head into the solid steel wall. The steel bent outward with a thunderous creek, but she felt nothing. She did it again and again, trying to force her attacker out of her body. But its hold couldn't be fought forever, and soon she fell to her knees in surrender.

Her head slowly rose, out of her control as a vicious grin spread across her lips. "You fear hurting the ones you love." Dani climbed to her feet and looked up at the ceiling, as if staring straight through it at the girl who waited up on the surface. Her laughter echoed through the dead halls of the Guys in White facility.

* * *

Sam sat on the top of the grassy hill, her hands nervously tugging at the chains on her leather pants as she looked down at the crater that spread out before her. It had been quite a while since Dani went to investigate. Sam knew Dani could take care of herself if anything happened, but that didn't stop her from worrying. It was very quiet up here, and after the night they'd had, the quiet afternoon did nothing to calm her nerves. 

At last she leapt to her feet when she saw Dani's ghostly form emerge from the grass, floating easily up through the top layer of Earth to settle back down, standing solid upon it.

Sam rushed toward her with a worried expression on her face. "Are you okay, Dani!? What happened!?"

"Something wonderful, Sam." Dani's smile was strange, as if it was a mask for something else. "I feel like a whole new person."

"So you found a way to save our family!?" Sam clasped her hands in front of her hopefully.

Her smile faded at the sound of Dani's chuckle, a deep, mirthless thing. "Oh yes, Sam." Dani approached with her arms out to the side. "I know how to set them free forever. Let me show you what I mean."

Sam stepped back, then retreated quickly down the grassy hill. "You're not Dani, are you?"

"Of course I am, Sam." Dani cackled. "I always have been. The one and only." She raised her hand, which pulsed with bright green ecto-energy. Sam's eyes went wide as, in her shock, she tripped over one of her large boots and fell to her butt on the grass, landing heavily on her back. Dani moved to stand over her, the ecto-blast aimed straight at her face.

Sam screamed as the blast leapt from Dani's hand, but it surged right past her head to slam into the grass behind her. The grass was charred and wilted, but Sam sat stunned, but unharmed on the hill. Dani growled and fired another powerful blast, but this one came down on Sam's other side, sending a cloud of dirt flying into the air around her, but leaving her unscathed.

Dani's eyes narrowed in anger. "Stop it!"

Sam blinked and began to slide back away from the ghost on shaking limbs. Her Danny was in there somewhere, keeping the ghost from hurting her. But who knew how long he could hold on? She had to use this chance he gave her to escape. So she leapt to her feet and started running across the field, not daring to look back. The instant Danny lost his grip, the ghost would be on her, and she wouldn't have a chance. She had to get away before that happened.

Dani watched her go with a frustrated frown on her face, but it soon turned to a small smile. "Fine. Let her run. Her time will come soon enough, and when it does, you won't be able to stop it."

By the time Sam reached Amity Park, her lungs were burning and her legs were starting to give out, but she didn't let herself slow down until she was safely hidden among the forest of buildings. Even Danny Phantom would have a difficult time finding someone in the middle of a city, so she would be safe as long as she didn't call attention to herself. But how long would she be safe with that monster out there and her hero unable to fight it?

Sam stumbled off the side of the road onto the sidewalk, leaning her back against one of the buildings to catch her breath. Everyone else was captured, and Dani was Overshadowed and subjugated by her own evil ghostly side. Plus there was that shadow creature, that strange shadow creature that was also lurking somewhere in the world probably waiting to cause havoc. Wait… shadow…

"The shadow with no master…" Sam's eyes widened and she pushed herself off from the wall. Was it possible? Did that shadow creature come from the Necronomicon? If it did, that meant the book held real power. Power she could use to free Dani and the others. But she didn't know anything about using it. She needed an expert on magic, but thankfully she knew just where to find one of those.

She jogged down the sidewalk to the FentonWorks building, on the way taking out her cell phone to schedule a private flight from the airport. It was fortunate her mother had not yet deactivated her credit card, she had a feeling it would serve her well. But for now, she rushed into her new home and ran up the steps, taking them two at a time up to Danny's room… or, she supposed, the room they would share from now on.

She snatched the Necronomicon out of her suitcase and turned to rush out, but she glanced into Jazz's room as she passed, and halted in her tracks. She stepped back to look inside, then rushed in to snatch a small circular device with a yellow "T" painted on the front from Jazz's nightstand before rushing out the front door.

* * *

The cold and rusty cell was a most unwelcome sight when Kimberly Anne Possible finally began to awaken. The air chilled her exposed skin, though thankfully she could feel a pair of warm arms around her, helping to ward off the chill. Kim lifted her gaze from the bars in front of them to see her mother holding her close, sitting back against the wall of the cell with a concerned look on her face. 

"Kim!" Her mother's eyes went wide when she realized Kim was looking at her. "You're awake! I was so worried! I was afraid…"

"I'm fine, mom." Kim smiled slightly. She looked across the room as her little brother, Tim and Jim, approached with their father James right behind them. "Sorry I couldn't stop that thing…"

"Oh Kimmie, you did all you could." Her mother squeezed her tighter, resting her cheek against the top of her head. "That's all anyone can ask of you." Kim narrowed her eyes, uncomforted by her mother's kind words. She'd always taken pride in her abilities, the strength to save anyone who needed it. To fail so badly and let all of this happen… it came as a huge blow.

Kim sat up to look around the rest of the cell. She could see the Fenton parents leaning against the bars at the front of the cell, speaking in hushed, worried tones while their daughter, Jasmine, sat cross-legged on the floor in the corner away from them. There was another girl Kim didn't recognize sitting in a chair right outside the cell with long black hair and a Latina skin tone whose eyes were dark and sunken, as if she hadn't slept well in a very long time.

"Are you really going to let this happen, Paulina?" Jasmine asked from inside the cell. The girl called Paulina turned to look over at her. "Can you really live with yourself helping a being of pure evil destroy the world? You have to see that's what's happening here."

"It… you don't know him like I do." Paulina shook her head. Her voice was shuddering strangely through her light Mexican accent. "There's more to him than the anger and the hatred. He loves me."

"He doesn't have any concept of love, Paulina." Jasmine scooted closer to the cell, gripping one of the bars. "He used you to his own ends, and as soon as he's finished using you, he's going to kill you too."

Paulina's voice shuddered as she spoke. "That's not true! It can't be!" Rising to her feet, she marched over to the cell, glaring down at Jasmine with a vicious, but uncertain expression. "If… if it was true there… there wouldn't be anything I can do. It can't be true. He has to mean it."

Jasmine rose to her feet, gripping the bars between them in both hands as she stared into Paulina's eyes. "Paulina, let us out of here and maybe we can find a way to stop him. Please. We need your help. The world needs your help." Paulina stared into her eyes fearfully, but with a hint of thoughtfulness and remorse. Nobody said anything until suddenly, a sound came from the front entrance of the prison block.

"Your petty lies won't sway her away from me." All eyes turned and gasps echoed across the cell as Dani Phantom's body approached, her light green eyes shining with evil red energy. "She has been ever faithful to me, and that's not about to change. Is it, my dear?"

"N-no! Never!" Paulina hustled away from the cell as the ghost approached, her gaze sweeping across those trapped within.

"In case any of you still retain any hope of your precious ghostly hero saving you, you can abandon it now. As you can see, she has been dealt with." A grin spread across her lips at the looks of shock and horror that covered those inside the cell.

Kim gulps and pushed herself to her feet, moving away from her mother to approach the front of the cell. "This isn't over."

"Ah." Dani's body moved closer, her eyes locked on Kim's. "I see we have a volunteer to be the first to die."

"No!" Kim's mom ran up behind her, wrapping her arms around Kim's waist to drag her away from the bars. "Please, she's upset, she just needs to calm down." The rest of Kim's family moved up beside her, blocking Kim from the ghost's view.

Dani barked out a laugh, a forked tongue darting out between her lips, revealing the monster that lay beneath the innocent eyes. "You amuse me. Perhaps later will see more amusement." Dani turned toward Paulina. "I'm going to rest for a while. Keep an eye on them, and do not let them escape." She raised one hand, letting the back of her fingers brush over Paulina's cheek. "Don't let their lies sway you, my dear."

Paulina shook her head. "Never." With that, Dani turned to leave the room, leaving everyone staring after her in shock. They were still absorbing what this meant as Paulina walked calmly toward her chair and sat down to play with her hair. Her eyes stared into the empty space in front of her, no longer seeing any of them nearby. She just stared straight ahead, into the world she wanted to see.

* * *

"Raaaaaaaaaaaagh!" Buttercup's scream split the air as a mighty punch landed straight in her opponent's chest. Mange whirled back through the air, slamming into the side of a bus down on the city street hard enough to punch a hole straight through it and put a crater in the concrete ten feet wide and just as deep. Buttercup floated from the sky to land on the crater's edge as the shadow rose up. 

Buttercup clutched her side, her breath coming in deep, pained gasps. Her dress was ripped apart, hanging off of her small frame almost in tatters with blood leaking down the fabric from the many cuts and gashes that now adorned her body. Mange's body was in no better condition. The black energy that created her form was swirling and twitching around itself, splitting off from the main body to dissipate into the air as her eyes began to crack through the surrounding energy.

Mange's voice was a dark, pained growl. "You… will… suffer…"

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Buttercup leapt into the crater and threw a massive punch, but Mange leapt to the side, letting her fist dig into the Earth, sending up a cloud of debris. "You don't know what suffering is! You think it hurts to lose 50 years of an immortal life? You think its hurts to lose a boy you USED for 6 years!? I'll tell you what suffering is!"

Buttercup ripped a chunk from the ground and threw it with the force of a bullet. It slammed into Mange's chest, knocking her back against the side of the crater. Buttercup was on her before she even settled against it, her fists driving into her chest top pin her there. "Boston wasn't the only one who died! Who do you think was driving him around when it happened!? Do you even care!?"

Buttercup yanked her away from the wall, flipping her through the air like an axe to slam her into the rocks below, sending shards bounding off of the sides of the crater. "Brick was in that car! And so was our son! Our five year old son!" Buttercup's fist came down in a vicious punch, slamming into Mange's face. Two more blows followed in rapid succession. "We only had five years together before they were all taken from me at once. Do you know what THAT is like!? Huh!? DO YOU!?"

Buttercup grabbed the shadow's face in one hand, lifting it off the ground to drive it back down like a railroad spike. Mange's head shattered the ground like a wrecking back, nearly burying itself. "Did I let it bring an end to my life? Did I use it as a pathetic excuse to lash out and hurt people? No! I went on! And I kept living! You lost 50 years of an immortal life? Cry me a river you melodramatic bitch!" She brought her fist back, intent on smashing Mange's head like an eggshell, but before she could bring her fists down a tendril of shadow shot up from the darkness like a lance, plunging into her stomach.

Buttercup's eyes went wide and her fist paused in the air. Mange lifted her head off the ground, her pulsing eyes staring into Buttercup's as another black lance shot into her chest, driving her back as she shadow pulled herself from the ground. Buttercup brought her arms down to try to pull the black energy out of her body, but a third plunged into her suddenly, driving her back against the wall of the crater, punning her there like a trapped butterfly.

Mange said nothing more, approaching Buttercup as one arm rose above her head. It narrowed down, lengthening into a large blade easily as long as both of their bodies combined. She raised it into the air to bring it down in a sweeping arc, but suddenly in the sky a streak of pink light caught Buttercup's eye. It arced downward and struck the ground like a lightning bolt right on top of Mange.

An explosion of dust and debris hurled Buttercup out of the crater, her body flying limp through the air until she slammed into the side of a nearby building, her tiny body bouncing off of it to hit the sidewalk with a thump. Her breath came in deep gasps as her eyes fluttered open again. Her vision was blurred, but she could see a figure in pink approaching from the crater.

"Buttercup?" A familiar voice spoke as the figure kneeled down beside her, lifting her head off the ground. "Buttercup, speak to me!"

"Blossom?" Buttercup blinked in an attempt to clear her vision. The sight before her stunned her. It was Blossom, in her old childlike form. Her fingerless hand was stroking Buttercup's head in a tender caress. "You didn't use the…"

"Ssshhhh. I'm fine." Blossom smiled, though Buttercup could see a twinge of regret in her eyes. "Come on, I have to get you home." She lifted her sister into her arms.

"But Mange…"

"I've taken care of her for now, Buttercup. But you're wounded and you need time to recover." Blossom lifted into the air. Her face contorted in pain as she did, but she didn't say anything about it. Buttercup remained silent as well as they flew through the air back toward their suburban home.

* * *

A knock on the door drew Juniper Lee across her grandmother's living room with a quick stride. "I'll get it!" She called back into the house before she reached the door and pulled it open. She blinked in surprise when she saw the girl from the week before standing on the other side of the door, clutching a large book close to her chest with a worried look on her face. "Wow. When Ah-Ma said I'd be seeing you guys again, I didn't think she meant next week." 

"Ha-ha." Sam shook her head. "I need your help. What can you tell me about this?" Sam turned around the book she was holding, revealing a sight that made Juniper's stomach do sickening circles, though she wasn't quite sure why. The book looked utterly disgusting, and something in Juniper's gut told her to rip it apart right then and there. Though she didn't follow that instinct.

"Ah-Ma!" Juniper looked back into the house. "It's for you!"

Ten minutes later Sam, Juniper, and her grandmother Jasmine were seated around the coffee table in the living room, while the aged Chinese woman poured over the contents of the book Sam had brought. Juniper and Sam both watched her with intense looks on their faces, waiting for her verdict on just what the book was. It didn't seem possible it was real, and yet…

"It is, without a doubt, the true Necronomicon." Juniper's grandmother nodded and closed the book in her lap, putting it on the table in front of her. "I cannot read it."

"What do you mean you can't read it? It's written in English." Sam blinked in confusion.

"The Necronomicon is perfectly attuned to the forces of evil. So perfectly, that only those who have touched pure evil can ever read from its pages. To such a person, its words would read as clear as day." The old woman's eyes fixed on Sam's, staring deep into them. "A person such as you, it seems."

"Me?" A smirk tugged at Sam's lip, thinking back.

"_Sam…" Danny grunted and closed his eyes. "Help… me…" Danny growled and yelled, throwing his head back as the ectoplasm surged one last time, roaring over his body in a wave so strong that, for a moment, it also engulfed Sam. The ectoplasm leapt from Danny's body and ripped into the night sky, the powerful form of Danny Phantom with blood red eyes and a mouth lined by vicious fangs._

_An unearthly shriek split the air as the ghost came back down abruptly. One clawed hand wrapped around Sam's throat, slamming her head back into the ground with a heavy thud. Sam gasped and screamed in pain, her hands clutching at the ghostly wrist, but unable to do anything about it._

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "I've been touched by evil before. But…" Sam trailed off, suddenly realizing a problem with this.

"_Thank you, I will." Paulina opened the book to a page she'd marked previously and cleared her throat, speaking in a loud commanding voice. "On Necronomicon, written in blood and bound in human fl-okay ewe. This is just gross."_

"_Pure concentrated evil usually is." Sam agreed._

"_Hush, you!" Paulina cleared her throat again and started over. "Oh Necronomicon, written in human blood and bound in human flesh, may your powers stir on in the darkness that surrounds us. Bring to me the strength of the dark and of the master of darkness, the demon below! Emeris Unumbra, Emikara!" She stopped, looking around the quiet room._

Sam's eyes went wide. Before any of this ever started, Paulina was reading from the book. But Jasmine had said that only those who'd been touched by evil could read from its pages. What evil could have touched Paulina? Sam tried to think, but she couldn't come up with anything until suddenly it all started to come together. Star had said Paulina never acted the way she had before the attacks happened, and then after Danny's dark side split off, it had gone straight for Paulina…

It seemed so clear now. The entire time, Danny's dark side had been toying with her. Manipulating her from a distance until the day he needed her help. Paulina was always kind of a bitch, but not nearly as much as she became in those last few months. She'd gotten angry, moody, and, as the scar that still adorned Sam's abdomen proved, more than a little violent. That was why she'd been able to read from the book. That was why she lashed out so violently. That was probably why she'd sought out the book in the first place. That was why she embraced such a clearly evil power as Danny's dark side with open arms.

"All along." Sam's eyes narrowed. "He was using her all along."

"Using who?" Juniper blinked in surprise.

Sam looked up at the Chinese girl, then blinked and shook her head before snatching the book off of the table. "So you're saying this is real. So the spells in it really do work."

"They will work." Jasmine replied. Sam nodded and stood to leave, but one frail hand shot out to grab her wrist in a firm grip, holding her like a vice. "But the power of this book is born of all the darkness of life. One touched by evil, tainted by it, can read the words. But one who calls upon its power will have embraced that evil. You may take it into yourself." She stood up slowly, her strong, fierce eyes locked on Sam's. "Only one whose heart is built of virtue can resist this. You may irrevocably taint your own heart with its evil."

Sam shook her head. "I don't care. I'm going to save Danny, and everyone else. I'll give up my heart, my life, and my soul if I have to."

The older woman stared into her eyes, then smiled a soft smile. "Then I believe that you can resist it after all." Her hand released Sam's wrist and she sat back comfortably in her thick easy chair. "Just be cautious of the forces of darkness. Even the purest heart can fall pray to their tricks." Sam nodded solemnly, clutching the book close to her chest.

"Come on, I'll escort you to the door." Juniper pushed herself up from her position leaning over the back of the sofa. Sam followed her through the small house to the front door, where Juniper pushed the door opened and turned to look at her. "It sounds like things are getting really serious, and I would love to help you but… I can't leave Orchid Bay."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I have a plan. Already have a spell picked out and everything." Sam smiled and patted her book.

Juniper smiled. "Do you at least need a ride back home? I think I could arrange that." She blinked in surprise when she heard a loud sound from the front yard.

"No thanks." Sam pushed the door open, to reveal a massive multi-sectioned jet hovering over the ground just outside of her home. "I already have a ride back. Thanks for your help!" Sam rushed outside toward the jet.

One of the five cockpits opened to reveal a large man with cybernetic parts where most of his body should have been. "Hop right on in, we'll take you where you need to be." He shouted with a grin. Sam leapt into the empty seat, and moments later the two cockpits closed as the ship rose high into the air. Without warning the jet took off through the sky, flying straight into the setting sunlight.

Juniper walked out onto the lawn to watch them go, clasping her hands behind her back and generally feeling useless. All she could do was say one tiny, insignificant phrase. "Good luck."

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Dani's body may be under the control of her dark side, but there's still hope as Sam and the Teen Titans race across the countryside armed with superior numbers and the power of the Necronomicon. The final battle is so close, and yet so many questions remain. What will come of Mange's plot for revenge? What's wrong with Blossom? Will Paulina truly turn against her love and see that she's been deceived? Will Sam be forced to sacrifice her heart to the darkness to save the ones she loves? Will anything ever be the same again? The final episode of Haunted Legacies Season 1.

Episode 19: Rebirths - The Eternal Spirit


	19. Rebirths The Eternal Spirit Part 1

PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies

Mange and Buttercup clashed in a battle that spanned the length of Townsville, neither giving the other time to recuperate until at last the battle ended in a stalemate when Blossom intervened and saved her sister from possible death, by using the tainted Chemical-X from the floor of her lab. Dani and Sam journeyed to the Guys in White headquarters near Amity Park to get help in defeating Dani's dark side, but Danny Phantom had already beaten them there! His power overwhelming, he easily took control of Dani's body and tried to kill Sam, though she quickly got away. Sam, alone and frightened, put together a last ditch plan by going to Juniper Lee to confirm the evil power of the Necronomicon, and called the Teen Titans for help in facing this horrible foe one last time.

Episode 19: Rebirths – The Eternal Spirit

People began to gather around the giant crater in the center of Townsville's main street. Hushed, worried murmurs echoed through the crowd as they slipped closer and closer, careful not to fall into the deep pit in the middle of the street. One boy crept closer to the pit than the others, holding his ice-cream cone tightly in his left fist as he peered down the steep side.

"Jeremy, careful!" His mother rushed forward to grab his shoulders, holding him back before he could approach any further.

"What is it, mommy?" The boy looked up in confusion. Suddenly his mother shrieked and yanked him back while the rest of the crowd stumbled away.

A deep, living shadow emerged from the crater, its body flickering like a tiny candle in a vicious windstorm. There were times when it seemed to vanish entirely, only to recreate itself on the ground just outside of the crater. Its form shifted slowly until it was standing upright, the glowing green pools of its eyes spreading further into its face in a series of cracks that spread across its head and down the front of its torso like blood veins.

It stumbled forward a few steps, and the people watching spread further away from it, opening a pathway out into the open street. The shadows pulled themselves away from the crater before coming to a stop to look up at the horizon.

Its eyes narrowed and it stumbled forward again. Tendrils of shadows slowly moved from its body, dragging across the ground behind it as it walked away from the crowd.

* * *

Buttercup grunted in pain as her sister's strong arms lowered her onto the sofa in the old Utonium living room. Being here brought back so many memories for her. Many good, many terrible. She hadn't been back in over forty years, now that she thought about it. It just hadn't felt right staying here since the accident. She'd left five years later, and started up a new life as a police officer in Citiesville. Townsville had become nothing more than a memory. 

"Relax. Your body will heal, but these wounds are pretty bad. It'll take time." Blossom approached the side of the sofa with a bowl of water and a washrag, then began washing up Buttercup's wounds with a gentle touch. Buttercup said nothing. She just stared at the ceiling, letting her body relax while her sister washed her sore and aching flesh.

Blossom looked up from Buttercup's wounds to study her face for a moment, then looked back down as she spoke. "You didn't come, Buttercup." Buttercup didn't respond, staring up at the ceiling. "Why didn't you come back? It was The Professor, he would have wanted you here."

"I couldn't." Buttercup shook her head without looking her sister in the eye. "After Bubbles, Brick, Boston, and Brett… I couldn't say goodbye to him too. I just couldn't." She looked up at Blossom at last, their eyes meeting. "And now you're going to make me say it to you too." She looked down at Blossom's body. "There's no way that Chemical X didn't have any negative effects."

"I'm not important next to the fate of the world." Blossom smiled a tender, motherly smile and laid her wet washrag down in her bowl as she stood up. "You rest here, Buttercup. Let your wounds heal, and when you're ready to go back to your old life…" Blossom reached into one of the pockets of her tiny pink dress and withdrew a small vial of black liquid. "This is the last of the Antidote X." She laid it on Buttercup's chest over her heart, patting it into place. A tear leaked down Blossom's cheek as she gave her sister a sad smile. "Goodbye, Buttercup."

Buttercup remained silent, watching her sister turn to leave her small house in the suburbs of Townsville. Her gaze shifted down to the bottle of Antidote X lying against her chest. One hand reached up to grip it tightly as she leaned her head back. She could already feel her wounds healing now that she wasn't using her energy in combat. It wouldn't be long… but how long did Blossom have left?

Buttercup grunted and sat up, slipping the bottle into one of her pockets. "Blossom!" Blossom stopped and turned to look back at her. "I'm coming with you."

"Buttercup, you're still hurt. You need to rest."

"If you're going to save the world, then so am I." Buttercup walked up to her, smoothing her dress down over her tiny body. She flashed her sister a confident smirk. "One more time, if that's how it works out."

Blossom's eyes went wide, then her lips spread into a smile and she nodded, the tall bow on her head bobbing with the movement. "Come on then. Let's go find our villain."

* * *

The Townsville skyline was lit up by the last, shining rays of dusk as the T-Jet flew close to the ground, its engines roaring at full thrust to put an end to this as quickly as possible. Sam sat in her lonely section of the jet, clutching the Necronomicon close to her chest while she waited. She hated this waiting. It gave her too much time to think, and the more she thought about her plan the more nervous about it she became. Jasmine Lee said this book was a force of pure evil. Could she really use it to save her family? Her stomach was turning in nervousness. 

She blinked when her headset clicked on and a low, grating voice spoke. "Are you sure about this?" Sam glanced to the side out of her section's cockpit. Raven was watching her from the section adjacent to her own, her gaze deep and steady. "Dark magic can be unpredictable. It can even destroy the user. I'm still not sure we should base our entire attack strategy on it. Especially in the hands of someone who has never used magic before."

"I can handle myself." Sam shot back with more venom than she'd intended. "I know you all took down Dani once. I know you're good. But trust me, this ghost is stronger than Dani. You wouldn't stand a chance. All I need you guys to do is give me time to do what I have to do."

Robin's voice came back over the headset. "We'll give you all the time you need. I just hope it works."

Cyborg's voice spoke over the headset. "I'm already scanning the city for signs of the ecto-signature we got from Dani before. It looks like there's a reading. A big one. From the dead center of the city."

"Then we should go there at once, yes?" Starfire chimed in.

Robin spoke quickly. "No. We'll land a distance away and approach on land. He doesn't know we're coming, we can use the element of surprise to keep him off-balance. With any luck, we can take him down before he even knows we're there."

"Take him down? But the girl is our friend, is she not?" Starfire's voice shivered. "I do not wish to harm our ghost friend."

"If the plan fails, we'll do what we have to. Like we always have." Robin's command was the last word spoken through the headset.

Sam glanced out the window to see Raven staring at her with a sharp, penetrating gaze. She wished the girl would just go away, she wished they would all go away. But she'd asked them to come, and she knew they were right. If they couldn't expel the dark ghost, killing Dani was the only way to keep the world safe. If they could do that, anyway. She shook her head and leaned against the window, suddenly feeling cold.

"Don't worry Dani. I'm coming." She whispered softly to herself.

Before she knew it, the T-Jet had landed and they were all climbing out. "Alright." Robin turned to the others. "You all know the plan." He turned away from them, staring up at the top of the volcano, where an aged and decrepit old observatory was sitting. "Let's go."

* * *

Jazz watched Paulina from her position seated by the corner of the small cell. She hadn't moved or spoken, despite Kim's repeated attempts to convince her to let them go, or even goad her into a fight. The girl looked like she'd just shut down entirely, lost in her own world while her hands played with her long black hair. Jazz knew the girl had been plotting against them with the dark ghost, but she couldn't help but feel a few pangs of sympathy. Ghosts had proven well able to influence the actions, and even emotions, of others. Was she really responsible for what she'd done? 

Jazz climbs to her feet and leaned against the bars, gripping them loosely in her hands. "Paulina. What did he do to you?"

Paulina's eyes rose from her hair for the first time since the ghost had left, her eyes turning to meet Jazz's. Her expression was blank, but Jazz could see her eyes full of fear and confusion. "He loves me."

Jazz shook her head. "Do you really think that?" When Paulina remained silent she repeated her question. "What did he do to you?"

"He loves me." Paulina repeated. "He loves me." She turned away from Jazz again and settled down, but suddenly a massive explosion made her jump up from her chair. "What was that!?" Another one made the entire observatory careen to the side, sending Paulina flying to the floor with a heavy thud. Jazz fell to the floor on her back as well, though she quickly scrambled to her hands and knees with everyone else.

"What the Heck!?" Kim jumped to her feet. "Is this place under attack?" She fell silent when the observatory began to groan again, shifting slowly to the side at a dangerous angle.

Jazz's heart leapt in her throat. "The observatory's gonna come down!" She grabbed the bars. "Paulina, you have to get us out of here!"

"But… he could need me!" Paulina turned to run away down the hallway, but she stopped when Jazz spoke again.

Jazz leaned closer, pressing her forehead against the bars with an intense gaze. "Paulina! Listen to me! This observatory is sitting on a volcanic mountaintop. If it comes down, at best we'll roll down the side of the mountain and be crushed against the ground. At worst, we sink into the volcano and burn to death. I know you don't want that. You've done some bad things, sure, but you're not this person." Jazz took a deep breath. "You saved my baby, Paulina. You defied him to save her. You know what he's doing, and you can resist him. So do it now. Help us."

Paulina turned back, her deep green eyes meeting Jazz's for several moments. Then, without a word, Paulina approached the cell and moved to unlock the door.

* * *

The next explosion slammed into the side of the building with a wave of energy dissipating into the air around the wall as Robin's explosive disc spread the force of Cyborg's sonic cannon in a wide, circular arc. The sphere of energy expanded out into the orange dusk sky, where the sun was fading further behind the horizon. It would be dark in less than an hour. 

Cyborg grinned and raised his cannon vertically in front of him, watching it recharge after the last blast. "Ah, no better way to get someone's attention. What do you say Robin, a few more?"

"No, I think that's enough." Robin drew a metal rob out of his belt, which quickly snapped into the long form of a steel bo, which he clutched in both hands. Everyone turned to follow his gaze to the top of the observatory, where the body of Dani Phantom was floating in the air with her arms crossed over her chest. The only indication of the evil lurking within were the blood red eyes and her twisted sneer.

Dani let out a laugh, her eyes meeting Sam's. "I give you a chance to strike back, and this is what you bring me? A couple of petty superheroes? Why didn't you just sick your dog on me?" She erupted into uproarious laughter, her forked tongue darting out into the air in front of her.

"Remember Titans, distraction run only." Robin glanced at Sam. "But you only get five minutes. If the plan doesn't work by then, we'll bring her down by any means necessary."

"I understand." Sam nodded and pursed her lips into a thin line, clutching the Necronomicon to her chest.

Robin walked forward slowly, flanked on either side by Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg. "You may be strong, but we have you outnumbered. And when we work as a team, there's nothing that can beat us."

"Do you now?" Dani floated toward them, her body shimmering as several other figures split off from her. These were dark male ghosts, the true spirit that was holding the pure body hostage. Five of them split off from Dani's body, and the six ghosts floated toward them, all with evil grins on their faces. "You might want to look again."

Robin's fists tightened around his staff, but he didn't back down. Instead he stepped forward, raising the metal staff in front of him. "Titans, go!" He leapt forward suddenly, his body spinning nimbly through the air just in time to avoid one of the ghost's crushing blows. As he landed behind them a sea of bright green starbolts ripped into the small crowd, slamming into them with enough force to make them stumble.

Cyborg's sonic cannon kept them off-balance, sweeping across the ghostly crowd while Robin leapt into the air, flinging several explosive discs down into them. Raven lifted into the air, chanting her spell as her eyes began to flash with white energy. Beams of light like black blades plunged down into the smoke kicked up by the explosions, starbolts and sonic waves.

Robin landed beside the billowing cloud of dust and debris beside Cyborg while Starfire and Raven floated in the air, looking in amazement at what they had done.

"Did we go too far?" Starfire asked with a trembling voice.

"Not a chance." Sam stepped back away from the crowd.

Raven's eyes flashed suddenly and she whirled toward her companions. "Cyborg, move!" Despite her warning, he didn't have time.

Six massive blasts of piercing green energy roared from the smoke, so intense they distorted the air around them. They hit Cyborg dead-on, punching straight through his thick metal body like a sheet of paper at a shooting gallery. They ripped through his torso in various chunks, sweeping across his body and even taking his arm off at the shoulder before he even had time to fall. His body hit the ground like so much junkyard scrap, his human eye wide with shock at the suddenness of the assault.

Robin's eyes widened. "CYBORG!"

"No, friend!" Starfire covered her mouth in horror, then turned as the smoke began to dissipate. All six of the ghosts were standing where they had before, waiting with vicious grins.

As one, they raised their hands in front of them in a beckoning gesture, speaking in unison. "Bring it."

Robin's gaze moved away form them, looking down at the shattered and broken metallic body of his good friend lying on the ground. As he watched, the red spark in his eyes and the blue energy that flowed through the rest of his body faded to back, leaving nothing but a dark shell with a human eye staring blankly out into space. Robin's fists tightened around his bo staff as his eyes rose to meet the ghost's, his lips curling into a snarl.

Starfire and Raven floated down beside him, then suddenly with a scream Robin launched himself forward, the two remaining Titans rushing to the attack right on his sides.

Robin's body whirled through the air toward the female ghost, his legs lashing out in a series of lightning fast kicks. They rebounded harmlessly off of the ghost's chest, but Robin landed in an easy crouch in front of her and rolled to the side to avoid her counterblow. He sprang up again and whirled to slam his bo into the back of her head at full force. The steel rod snapped in half, but he paid it no heed. His body twisted through the air to avoid a pair of green blasts from his opponent's hands, until he landed on his hands and fell to a crouch.

One of the male ghosts came up behind him, firing a green blast as thick as Robin's torso, but Robin leapt forward on his hands again, letting the blast dig into the ground while his feet slammed into the female's chest. The blow did no damage, but Robin kicked off of her chest and flipped through the air, his hands flashing in and out of his utility belt. A rainstorm of discs came down around the powerful male ghost, kicking up a cloud of blue smoke. When it dissipated the ghost was trapped in a thick shard of ice.

Robin landed behind it, but the female was already phasing through her frozen clone, coming at him with a howl of hatred.

Starfire flew right between two of the male clones, taking off into the open sky. They whirled to follow in hot pursuit with astonishing speed, moving so fast they left a trail of white light wherever they went. Suddenly Starfire came to a stop and whirled around, her fist lashing out to slam into one of the ghost's faces. The blow sent it careening back through the air, but its companion buried his fist in Starfire's stomach, doubling her over his arm.

His other fist came around, but both of Starfire's hands came up to catch his wrist, deflecting the momentum of the blow and adding to it, sending the ghost hurtling into a nearby office building. She watched it smash through several walls and floors full of furniture and electronic machines, plummeting in a downward arc with a trail of destruction and chaos behind him. Starfire whirled around again when the first clone came up on her again, a fist slamming into her jaw and knocking her back through the sky.

Starfire growled and righted herself in mid-air, her fists and eyes pulsing with green energy. The first clone was floating up toward her, and to the side she could see the second phasing out of the building without touching it, flying toward her at full speed. Starfire raised her fists to the air, and rushed down to meet them again.

Raven looked down at the body of her good friend, sparks surging into the air from circuits desperately struggling to work. Desperately struggling to live. She swore she could see his mouth moving, trying to speak despite the severity of his wounds. She closed her eyes, feeling her energy bubbling to the surface. They couldn't do that to Cyborg. They couldn't. They wouldn't.

Her eyes flared open, four pools of pitch black energy as her arms lifted into the air with a vicious howl. Black energy sprang to life in front of her, roaring through the air and ripping at the last two ghostly forms in front of her. The dark energy lashed out at them, but powerful green blasts ripped into the darkness, blowing chunks out of it to send them floating into the air, writhing before vanishing into nothingness. Raven's darkness tried to flow forward, but the ghosts' glowing hands ripped through it, tearing it to shreds on their way to Raven's body.

Raven howled in anger, her force redoubling and coming back around to flood into the two fighting clones. They stood side by side and took a deep breath, each of them letting releasing it in a powerful, piercing wail…

Sam stood behind the Titans, holding the Necronomicon open in her palms, staring down at its pages. She kept her breath coming in deep, rhythmic gulps as she read the words on the page through hazy eyes. "Aracteeha, neurohem, niihen. Aracteeha, neurohem, niihen. Aracteeha, neurohem, niihen…"

* * *

Paulina ran through the observatory as fast as she could, her shoes clanking across the steel floor plates as those freed from the cell rushed behind her. They turned back and forth down the winding steel hallways, until at last Paulina could run no more. She slowed to a stop at an intersection and leaned against one of the walls, panting desperately to catch her breath. 

"Paulina." Jazz approached, her own breath coming in deep gasps. "Do you actually know where we're going?"

"How should I know? I was taken through the walls just like the rest of you." Paulina glared irritably.

"What!?" Kim screamed and stomped toward them. "Are you telling me nobody has any idea how to get out of this place!?"

"Don't yell at me! I don't see you offering any ideas!" Paulina shot back.

"I'm not the one leading us around like I know where I'm going!" Kim pulled at her hair in frustration. "We need to get out of here! Before the whole thing collapses!" As if on cue, the building began to shudder and tilt further to one side.

Paulina stumbled back against the wall she was leaning on while the parents and the young twins slammed into the wall in the opposite hallway, but Jazz and Kim began to slide down center hallway, their legs slipping out from underneath them. Jazz screamed and grabbed for anything she could reach, eventually grabbing Paulina's hand just before she slid out of arm's length.

Kim slid further down the hallway, but she kicked off from the wall and threw herself into the corner of the hallway, her bare feet sticking between the floor and the wall in a near splits, halting her descent.

While Jazz scrambled up to the safety of the upper hallway with Paulina's help, Kim's mother crawled quickly to the hallway to look down the sharp slant at her daughter. "Kim! Kim, hold on!"

"I'm fine!" Kim called back up. "I think maybe we can get out down here!" Everyone looked down at her, a chorus of gasps floating down to her. Kim blinked slowly, pushing off from the wall a bit to look down between her legs.

The wall of the hallway below her had begun to glow orange, and vapors of heat were rising up into the hallway around her. It was only a few more moments before the metal simply liquefied, and they could see pure magma flowing through the hole below them.

Kim looked up at the others with a panicked look on her face. "New plan! Get me out of here!"

"Kimmie! Hold on!" Kim's mother screamed.

"Paulina!" Jazz whirled to look back at Paulina, who met her eyes with a look of surprise. "Between the two of us, we should be tall enough to reach her. It's just an incline, not a sharp drop off, so we should be able to reach down and get her if you hold onto my ankles."

"What?" Paulina gaped at her. "We could fall! Did you hit your head on something!?"

"No. I just trust you." Jazz spoke without hesitation. Paulina didn't have time to argue before Jazz turned to crawl to the edge of the hallway, looking down at Kim, who was stuck in the corner of the hallway, unable to move as the lava began to rise, heating the metal around it to white-hot levels. "Hold on, Kim! We're coming!" She turned back to Paulina. "Quick, hold my ankles!"

Paulina gulped and grabbed her ankles in a firm grip. Jazz flashed her a small, encouraging smile, then turned to crawl over the hallway again. She winced when she felt the heat rising from below, already intense enough to make her sweat after just a few seconds of exposure. She could see Kim's body shaking and sweating, threatening to slide right down the hallway if she dared to change her position.

Her hands slipped down the metal walls as Paulina carefully let her slide over the edge. Jazz gulped when she felt her legs slide past the ledge above her, leaving her fate entirely in Paulina's sweaty hands. She tried not to focus on that though, instead stretching her hands down toward Kim as her body slid closer and closer.

"Kim! Reach for my hand!" Jazz's voice echoed through the hallway. The heat from the swirling magma below nearly burned her tongue in just the time it took to speak. Kim tried to pull herself up, grunting and sliding her hands and feet up the wall in a slow crawl until she finally reached out with her left hand, stretching it out to its full length. Jazz felt her fingertips, but she couldn't reach far enough to get a firm grip. "A little more, come on!"

Kim's foot slipped on the metal panels, several beads of sweat falling from her foot into the magma below. Kim's eyes widened as her other foot began to slide, and everyone in the hallways let out a scream of panic. But Kim used the last of her leverage to throw herself against the slanted floor, flattening her stomach out against it and grabbing wildly at Jazz's hands. She began to slide back down, her body slickened by her own sweat, but their hands clasped right before she slipped out of range.

"Up! Up! For the love of God, up!" Kim screamed and kicked at the wall in desperation. Jazz felt herself being dragged back upward by Paulina's hands, then felt several more pairs of hands gripping her legs and waist to haul her in faster.

Jazz felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her chest as Kim was ripped from her grasp into her parents' waiting arms. Jazz looked back to see herself pressed against her father, who was clutching her tightly in his beefy arms.

"Don't dangle over hot lava honey, we've told you that!" Jack insisted.

Jazz smiled. "Actually, I don't think we ever covered that one in our father/daughter heart-to-hearts."

"Oh, well, we should have!" Jack yelled.

"Excuse me." One of the twins spoke up, interrupting the happy family moments. "The observatory is sinking into the volcano like a giant boat, but the air pockets won't last long with the metal melting in the extreme heat."

The other twin added, "plus the oxygen inside the observatory is being burned away, resulting in an exponentially increasing rate of descent as the air pockets are deoxygenized, which presents the added danger of suffocation."

Paulina looked up. "Subtitles, please."

"We need to move." Jazz moved away from her parents. "Now." Without any further arguments, the small group turned to rush down the hallways, struggling to keep their footing in the sharply slanted building. The sharp metal walls were growing hotter by the second. They had to find an exit soon, or at least a way to move up away from the volcanic magma. If they didn't…

* * *

Robin's feet slipped through the dirt and grass at the base of the volcano, spinning and vaulting out of the way of another series of powerful blows. Dani Phantom whirled in anger, her fists flashing with powerful green energy which arched from her hands. One of the blasts slammed into his shoulder before Robin could come down, spinning him back to slam into the trunk of a nearby tree. He screamed in pain as his body spun around it, landing on the ground with a heavy thud. 

Robin groaned and climbed to his hands and knees, but he didn't even have time to take a deep breath before one foot slammed into his side, sending him hurtling through the air, then tumbling across the grass. He slammed into the side of the mountain with a gasp of pain, his body spreading out across the hard rocks before going limp and collapsing to the side.

One of his arms came up to cradle his side, his breath coming in deep, pained gasps. In the distance he could see Starfire desperately trying to keep two of the clones at bay, though the bruises on her body showed clearly that her assault wasn't very effective. As Robin's eyes lowered to watch Dani Phantom approach, he could see Raven behind her, her energy barely holding her aloft while the two ghosts slammed into her, driving her further back across the ground. Her body bounced across it, to land limp on the pavement beyond the grassy park.

"Did you think you could win?" Dani Phantom approached slowly, as if savoring the sight of her opponent crippled at her feet. "You're just as pathetic as all of the rest. Weak, helpless bags of meat who have no concept of true power." She raised her hand in front of her, a massive ball the size of her head appearing in her palm. "Just go ahead and die."

"ROBIN!" Starfire's scream split the air. Suddenly she whirled, spinning through her two attackers and flying straight down toward Dani Phantom, her eyes shining with anger and alien light. "You get away from him! Or I will be forced to harm you!" She drew her fist back and came down like a bullet at blinding speed, but the ghost was still faster.

Without warning the ghost whirled and raised one hand, catching her fist in her palm. Rather than stopping the blow, she yanked it aside to twist her arm around, yanking it backward with a sharp, audible crack that drew a scream of pain from Starfire's lips. Starfire's shuddered in her grasp as the ghost yanked her close, holding her by the wrist and leaning her mouth close to the alien's ear.

"Yes, girl." The ghost whispered in pleasure as her eyes flashed with dark energy. "Scream." She yanked Starfire's arm inward, bending it in half. The sound of her bone cracking was deafening in Robin's ears, drowned out only by her shriek of pain.

"Let her go…" Robin tried to climb to his feet, but his limbs were shaking in weakness. "Leave her alone!"

The ghost yanked her arm up higher, drawing a sharper scream from her lips, which were wet with her tears of pain. Dani closed her eyes in pleasure at the sound. "Like the sound of angels…" She grinned and wrapped her other hand around Starfire's throat from behind. "Now let the fires of Hell burn this angel's wings." She whirled and flung Starfire away like an annoying doll, sending her hurtling up the side of the volcano, where the observatory was now half-sunk down into the mountain.

Starfire's body cracked against the top of the volcano, flying through the air limp before coming down against the solid steel wall. She plunged straight through it from the force of the throw, vanishing inside the sinking building.

Robin stared in disbelief, raising his eyes to look up at Dani, who was standing over him with a grin. "Now… where were we?"

Away from the field of battle, the Necronomicon floated in the air before the body of a girl, whose hands were open and held out before her as if presenting a gift. Her eyes shined with black light as her chant continued. "Aracteeha, neurohem, niihen. Aracteeha, neurohem, niihen. Aracteeha, neurohem, niihen…"

* * *

Jazz stared up at the ceiling of the large done, her eyes wandering over the smooth metal. There was no more escape, they were trapped in the center of the room. She looked back to see the lava beginning to overtake the only entrance into the observatory dome. The two families were holding onto some of the electronic equipment in the middle of the room, since it was practically on its side as it sunk further and further into the volcano. 

"He's not coming for me." Paulina shook her head in disbelief. "He knew I was in here, and he just left me here to die."

"Evil has a way of letting people down." Kim smirked and looked around. "Lament your evil boyfriend later, we have to find a way out of here."

"If we could just reach that telescope." Jazz looked up at the massive telescope that was pointed straight up out of the observatory, but the incline was now too sharp to move across, and it was too far to jump to it. The worst of it was the unbearable heat that turned the metal room into a giant oven. Everyone was clutching the console and each other, drenched in sweat and panting for oxygen that was in short supply.

"It won't be long before we pass out from asphyxiation." One of the twins spoke from his position lying against the side of the console, panting for breath as sweat poured down his face.

The other twin added, "Or heat stroke."

"Forget waiting here, I'm going for help." Kim grunted and heaved herself up onto the console, perching precariously on the edge of it.

"What? Are you nuts? You'll never make it!" Jazz exclaimed. "Get back down here and let's think of a more reasonable solution!"

"If you have another idea I'd be happy to hear it because-" Kim didn't get to finish her sentences, interrupted as she was by a sharp crash from the dome over their heads. All eyes turned upward, and a chorus of gasps split the air. The body of a girl was plummeting through the room, her purple skirt fluttering in the wind against her long, orange legs. Jazz was the only one to recognize her.

"Starfire!" Jazz screamed in panic. Kim grunted and crouched down on the console, lowering one hand in front of her. "You can't do it! It's impossible!" Jazz shouted.

"Anything's possible for a POSSIBLE!" Kim screamed as she leapt into the air. Her feet slammed into the wall, propelling her faster forward in her leap. Her arms opened just before she met the falling body, slamming into her and wrapping one arm around her as they both began to move through the air. They came short of the telescope, but Kim managed to lash out with one arm, grabbing hold of the chair leg beside it, which was bolted to what used to be the floor. She dangled from one hand with the unconscious girl held tightly in her other arm.

Mr. and Mrs. Possible let out screams of triumph, with Mrs. Possible adding, "that's our Kimmie! She can do anything!"

Maddie grumbled. "Jasmine could've done that."

Jazz looked at her in shock. "Like Hell!"

"Here you go…" Kim grunted with effort and dragged herself up onto the back of the telescope's seat, sitting on it and holding the orange girl in her arms. "Hey, are you okay? Hey!" Kim slapped her lightly in the face.

Starfire groaned and opened her eyes slowly. Her breath caught in a sharp gasp and she raised her left arm to clutch at her right shoulder. "I am damaged. I cannot feel my arm…"

"It looks like it's been broken in two, maybe three places." Mrs. Possible noted. "Looks vicious even from here."

Kim looked away from the arm that was, now that Jazz looked, dangling limp and angled in several disturbing ways. "No time to rest up right now. We're all going to fry soon if we don't get out of here."

Starfire looked down at the lava below. "Then I shall assist in your escape." She sat up, but let out a cry of pain and clutched her shoulder again. Kim grabbed her to prevent her from slipping off the seat.

"Your arm looks pretty bad, are you sure you can?" Kim asked.

"It does not matter. I must." Starfire kicked off of the seat, holding her dangling arm in her good one as she floated down toward those trapped on the computer console. "Come, we must make haste. I will take you to the telescope so you may climb to safety. But we must hurry one at a time."

"Tim, Jim, you go first." Mrs. Possible said instantly. Nobody else complained, so they began the process of ferrying across the gap one by one. On the other side Kim helped steady those being carried and got them started on their climb up to the telescope's lens, which was almost completely vertical by now. After a while, only Jazz and Paulina were left on the console, watching Starfire ferry Jazz's mom across the gap.

"Jazz." Jazz blinked and looked at Paulina. Her eyes were still dark and uncertain, but they looked more alive than they had earlier near the cells. "About your baby… I'm sorry for ever helping him get near her in the first place."

"In the past now. And you did the right thing then. Like you're doing the right thing now." Jazz placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled through the heat that grew only worse as the observatory sank deeper into the volcano. "Now get going, quickly!" They looked up as Starfire approached again. In moments Paulina was mounted on her back, riding back across the gap toward the telescope.

Jazz looked down into the swirling magma below, then turned her gaze up toward the telescope, atop which everybody was escaping through the slit in the roof. Soon it was her turn to grab hold of Starfire's good arm and hold on for dear life as she flew across the gap to the telescope, then turned upward to fly her up to the shattered remnants of the lens, where the others had begun to gather, and those present were helping those who were just arriving climb up onto it.

Starfire landed beside her on shaking legs. Jazz grabbed her shoulder to steady her, holding onto her as her gaze swept down from the telescope's lens. By now the dome was halfway submerged, and getting lower. She could still feel the heat of the magma rising up from the ring that surrounded them, cutting off any hope they had of escaping from here.

Starfire spoke through gritted teeth. "I shall… carry you to the mountain's edge."

"You're too weak." Jazz told her gently. "We'll find another way."

"Let me do it then." A void spoke from the center of the telescope's lens. All eyes turned inward, followed by a group of confused looks at the tiny girl hovering in their midst in a tiny green dress.

"Who the heck are you?" Kim asked in confusion.

"I don't care if you recognize me, we have to move and get you all out of here!" The girl shouted. Nobody argued the point.

CONTINUED...


	20. Rebirths The Eternal Spirit Part 2

Continued...

"Aracteeha, neurohem, niihen. Aracteeha, neurohem, niihen. Aracteeha, neurohem, niihen…" Sam struggled to keep her voice calm and soothing despite the war going on in front of her. She could see it all happening, but breaking her concentration would break the spell and make it all completely pointless. So she kept at it, feeling the dark energies flowing through her mind and body, pooling invisibly between her palms extended in front of her.

As she watched, Dani Phantom and the ghostly copies of Danny Phantom converged on the grass, walking into each other to once again become a single entity, which turned to approach Sam with a wry smirk on her face. "Well, isn't this something else?" Dani cackled. "The Goth thinks she's a witch. All the magic in the world won't save you now, Sam. Nor will your pathetic little lover." She raised her hand in front of her, which began to pulse with powerful ecto-energy.

Sam's eyes widened. She wasn't ready… the spell was still forming in her palms. If she broke it now, she would never have time to get it back.

Without warning a streak of light flew right past her head, creating a wind tunnel string enough to yank her ponytail right off of her head. Her hair hadn't even reached her shoulders before the pink light slammed into the ghost's chest with a sickening crunch. Dani Phantom tumbled back with the light attached to her chest, kicking off of it before coming back down to land a blow across her cheek.

A little girl in a pink dress and a large red hair bow hovered in the air while Dani Phantom tumbled across the ground. She floated down to the ground, panting and holding one arm across her chest. She coughed into her hand without warning, doubling over in pain.

"You…" Dani Phantom rose to her feet, growling in anger. "What do you think you're doing? Do you have any idea what you're dealing with?"

The little girl panted for a moment as the pain seemed to pass, rising to her feet. "You think you're evil?" She smirked and shook her head. "I've looked real evil in the face. You're just another monster."

"You talk like a wounded dog." Dani's arm shot forward, and a thick ecto-beam slammed straight into the girl's chest. The tiny girl's body ground into the ground, plowing through it like a bullet as the ghost followed at blinding speeds, leaving a trail of white behind. But the girl suddenly halted her momentum and thrust off from the ground, meeting the ghost's charge in a flash of pink light.

They slammed into each other with a vicious impact, bounding off of each other and coming back around for another blow. The little girl brought her fist back, but her punch passed right through the ghost, along with her whole body. She stopped and whirled, just in time to catch a massive ecto-blast right in the face, knocking her out of the sky. She hit the ground hard enough to kick up a cloud of dirt and debris, gasping and clutching her stomach again.

"Darnit…" the girl pushed herself to her hands and knees, gritting her teeth against the pain. "Not now. Last a little longer…"

Dani's former laughter had ceased, replaced instead by a haunting anger that sent chills down Sam's spine. Wait… it wasn't Dani that was doing it. She could feel the energy spinning through her body, finally forming into a solid structure within her. Moving through her spine to every part of her body, and focusing it all into her hands. It was finally ready. But she would only get one shot.

She cupped her hands as it holding a glass ball between them, pushing the energy from her spine into the space between them like the instructions in the book said. She could feel her legs shaking, but she ignored it. All of her attention was focused on her target, who was approaching the girl lying prone on the ground.

"Stop fighting and just die already!" Dani raised her arm back and brought it back down, firing a massive green ecto-beam straight into the girl's prone body. A scream erupted from her lips, but it didn't last long.

Sam threw her hands forward, letting the energy detach itself from her own essence to send it hurtling across the field. It couldn't be seen by the naked eye, but she could see its impact on the ghost's back. Dani gasped and stumbled forward, then whirled back towards Sam.

Dani looked around in surprise, then narrowed her eyes. "What did you just do?"

Sam gulped and took a few steps back. "N-nothing. What COULD I do to you? You're way too strong."

"You're up to something. That energy you were building up… it's gone now! What did you DO!?" Dani roared in anger and marched toward her.

Sam stumbled back as fast as she could, trying to keep some distance between them. Please, she prayed mentally. Please let it work…

* * *

Dani Fenton could see everything. The destruction, the carnage, the pain. She could see it all as if she was the one causing it, attacking her friends and the ones she loved. She could see Sam's terrified eyes staring into her own, wishing more than anything that she could put a stop to this. But she couldn't, she could only watch it all happen.

Suddenly she felt something change. She could feel her spirit moving in her own mind, turning into the dark recesses where a crack had appeared and was growing wider by the second. Dani blinked in amazement and approached it, hearing the sound of murmurs from the other side. As it grew wider, lights began to shine through, ever shifting and changing as colors weaved around one another. It took her a few moments to recognize it. It was Eternity.

Without warning, Dani felt herself being sucked towards it. She fell to her knees just inside the crack, her palms scraping painfully across the hard patch of land just inside of it. Dani turned his gaze upward to see Danielle standing in front of her with a look of surprise and happiness on her face.

"Dani! You're back! But… does this mean you're…?" Danielle's enthusiasm faded.

"I don't know." Dani shook her head. "It feels different this time… but I don't think I'm quite dead. Whatever Sam did, it must have brought me here."

"Yeah, I'll say it's different this time. You look like you instead of me." Danielle commented. Dani blinked in surprise and slowly lowered her gaze to her own body.

It was him. Danny Fenton, the boy he had been so long ago. His chest, his legs, his hands, they were all just as he remembered them. Only a bit longer and thicker now. He stared at his hands in amazement, reaching up to touch his face. It was as smooth and hairless as ever, but it definitely had a more masculine bone structure. His breath caught in his throat and a smile spread across his lips.

"Sam. She must have done this somehow. But what exactly did she do?" Danny looked over at his female clone.

"Whatever she did, it looks like it brought you here. The real you, instead of the 'you-in-my-body' you." Danielle commented.

"That's it!" A voice screamed in delight. Danny and Danielle both whirled around in surprise, looking around through the lights that surrounded them without seeing anything. "This is the true you, this is Daniel Fenton."

"You mean… my soul?" Danny asked.

"Bingo! Got it in one! I knew you were smart!" The voice giggled with girlish glee. "Sam's spell has broken the link between your body and your soul. You are free of its bondage, free to strike back at your captor, as was her plan all along."

"But if that's true, and I'm a living spirit, why did I come here?" Danny asked.

"Because the spell also ripped open a hole into the world of free souls. Eternity. Because you and Danielle are linked, it brought you straight to her."

"Linked?" Danielle looked up at Danny in surprise. "I thought that was just because he was in my body."

The girly voice spoke in a serious tone. "Your identical 'ghostly' sides link your spirits forever. Even if you cannot see nor feel one another, you will always be linked. Especially now that you have become a free-floating spirit."

"Free floating spirit… what about my body? Can I ever go back to it?"

"Of course, once you reclaim it as your own," the voice told him. "The boundary between Earth and Eternity is now as a door to you, Danny Fenton. Your life takes you there, and your bond with Danielle brings you here."

Danny looked down at the land mass, then raised his eyes to look at Danielle. "Danielle, I think I have a plan, but I'm going to need your help."

"Maybe you can go back, but I can't. What can I do?" Danielle asked.

Danny gripped her shoulders firmly. "Think back. Remember when I opened that portal in Orchid Bay? You said it did something to you."

"Yeah, it was like energy was being sucked… through me…" Danielle's eyes went wide and she looked up at Danny. "I know what you're thinking. But… that's a lot of power. It hurt last time. Passing more of it on to you could…"

"I know, and I'm sorry. But please. Sam is in danger, and so is everyone on Earth if that ghost isn't stopped." Danny flashed her a smile and placed a hand on her chin. "I know you can handle it, Danielle. You've always been a strong girl, ever since you were created. And we can do this if we work together."

Danielle stared into his eyes, then gulped and nodded her head. "Okay, I'll try. Just… finish it quickly."

"I'll do my best." Danny stood up, holding her hand tightly in one of his. "Now let's do this."

* * *

Sam gulped and stepped back as one of Dani Phantom's hands shot out, gripping the front of her leather vest and hauling her up off the ground. For the first time, Sam felt true fear well up in her throat. She'd always believed in Danny, always believed in his ability to come through for her. Was she wrong about the spell? Did it not work? Was he just not able to do anything?

"Sam!" She heard Jazz's voice scream from near the volcano. "You've got to help her!"

"I'm on it!" another voice screamed, and Sam saw a flash of green light flying across the grassy park. But it was far too late.

Dani Phantom's arm came back, then rushed forward, burying itself in Sam's stomach. She gasped in pain on impact, feeling her ribs cracking sharply under the ferocity of the blow. Gasps echoed across the field, and even the green light stopped in mid-air, watching the scene. The ghost held her steady for a moment, then moved her hand back, letting Sam dangle from her fist.

Sam grunted and gasped for air, with lungs punctured by her own bones. Dani pulled her closer, whispering into her ear. "A slow death… so much more delicious this way, don't you think?" She cackled. Sam grunted and tried to raise her hands, feeling the blood trickling from her lips. Silently, Dani Phantom dropped her to the grass, where she collapsed to the ground, trying futilely to raise her head.

"NO!" She heard a chorus of screams from across the field as her body hit the ground. She could feel the twisting pain in her stomach. Something was wrong… something was very wrong. She couldn't even sit up without the pain driving her back to the ground, clutching her stomach in desperation.

* * *

Buttercup screamed in fury and threw herself at the ghost, with Kim Possible rushing into the fray right beside her, but Jazz didn't pay them any mind. She could only stare at Sam lying on the grass, writhing in pain. It was a horrible sight to behold, one she wished she could wipe from her mind.

"This monster… it is unstoppable." Starfire spoke for the first time in a while, leaning weakly against Jazz with her broken arm dangling at her opposite side. Her gaze swept the field, seeing Cyborg nearby, with Raven lying on the grass a distance away and Robin lying against the mountainside, both unconscious. "It has defeated them all… there, there must be a way…" Starfire's eyes glistened with tears that echoed Jazz's own.

"Why won't you stay down!?" Buttercup screamed in anger as her fists tore into the ghostly body, but Dani suddenly went intangible, letting her fist pass through before firing a powerful ecto-blast into her face. Before she could press the assault, Kim vaulted up behind her, slamming both legs into her back. Dani barely stumbled, but her return blow was dodged with a quick duck, then a foot came up to knock her in the jaw before Kim rolled away again.

"Because I am raw power!" Dani brought her arm around, slamming it into Buttercup's face as she tried to launch another assault. The streak of green light flew back, punching into the ground like a spike, where she lay still, with her eyes closed in pain. "I am the strongest!" Dani whirled again with blinding speed as Kim tried to slip in behind her. One fist grabbed her leg right out of her kick and spun her around to fling her to the ground like a rag doll, sending her tumbling until she finally came to a stop, groaning in pain. "I am the fate of this world. Death."

Those who remained standing stumbled back until their backs pressed against the rocks at the base of the volcano. Dani Phantom approached with a dark promise etched onto her face, her hands twitching in anticipation. "The death of all pathetic humans." She brought her glowing hand up in front of her, but the ecto-blast that leapt from her palm was blocked by a suddenly whirling cloud of color covering her hand. "What's this?" Dani looked at it in confusion, trying to shake it off, but it began to spread up her arm instead.

"No! Get off of me! I can feel you! GET OFF!" Dani Phantom screamed in anger, trying to beat at the coalescing cloud that spread across her body. But her efforts were in vain, as soon the cloud was covering her entire body, and spreading wider and brighter until those watching were forced to cover their eyes.

"What's going on!?" Paulina screamed. "He's never done this before!"

"I don't think it's him!" Jazz peered through her hands at the lights until suddenly a brighter flash seemed to sweep through the entire city of Townsville, blinding all foolish enough to look in its direction.

Jazz blinked furiously, desperate to clear her vision and see what had happened. When her eyes finally cleared of the blinding light, she saw a figure in a white cloak huddled on the grass a distance away, its head down. At first Jazz thought it was Danny's dark body, but then it raised its head and turned to look back with a scowl. It was a woman, with dark blue skin and blood red eyes, with fingers that ended in wicked claws. The woman rose to her feet, facing a glowing light.

"I'm taking my body back." The lights slowly faded to reveal the body of a boy, pulling back into his eyes while his white gloved hands clenched in front of his black jumpsuit with the ghostly D embossed on the chest. "And I'm taking you down. Permanently."

"Danny." Jazz gaped in awe, looking at the glowing, coalescing colors contained within his eyes. "What's happened to you?"

"It doesn't matter." Danielle's dark body growled and brought her claws up. "He's going to die with the rest of the pathetic humans!"

Danny ignored her for a moment, his head flicking to the side, where Sam was still lying on the ground, writhing in pain. When he looked back, his eyes were narrowed, his fists clenching into powerful fists that pulsed with rainbow energy. Dani just laughed at the display, shaking her head and speaking in a soft, mocking tone. "If you'll miss her so much, I will send you to be with her."

Danny didn't respond. Instead he flung himself at Dani, bringing his fist around in a wide arc. Dani easily blocked it with one arm, grinning up at her. "Looks like the Chemical X came with me." She brought an arm around to slam into Danny's face, sending him hurtling back through the air. Danny flipped back end over end, but quickly righted himself. No sooner had he done that however than Dani was on him.

Danny's arm shot up instantly, leaving rainbow energy floating in the air where his hand passed. Dani's fist slammed into the energy, stopping dead in its tracks right before the energy faded. Another blow met another shield of energy, and a third and forth quickly followed suit as Danny floated backward, desperately trying to keep from being nailed by one of the punishing blows.

Danny whirled abruptly around one of the punches, bringing his glowing palm around to slam a rainbow ball right into Dani's face. The impact drove her back through the air, where Danny pressed the attack by throwing more powerful rainbow spheres and moving after her.

The dark ghost knocked all of the shots aside with a wave of its arms, coming back at Danny at full speed. They collided with a crackle of energy like thunder striking from the Heavens, and flew back towards the mountains. They went intangible just before they hit, vanishing from sight.

"Sam!" Jazz whirled away from the volcano and ran toward her wounded friend, kneeling down beside her. Her parents rushed up behind her, clasping each others' hands and watching in fear as Jazz knelt down to touch the younger girl's cheek. "Sam, come on. Talk to me, here."

Sam's eyes opened with a dazed smile. There was a trickle of blood running from the corner of her mouth down her cheek. "It worked. I saw him."

Jazz couldn't help but smile at that, despite the fear that still gripped her heart. "Yeah. You did. It was really him." She looked down the young girl's body, placing a hand against her abdomen. She could feel the pieces of her ribs just under the skin. Sam's face contorted in pain at her touch. "Sam, we need to get you to a hospital. Right now."

"No." Sam raised a hand to grip her shoulder, gulping in pain. "It's not over. Danny still needs me." She looked away from Jazz, at the book lying a few feet away on the grass. "Get my book, I have to help him."

"Sam, you can't. You're too hurt."

"Danny would do it for me." Sam looked up at Jazz with a steady gaze. "He'd do it for anyone. I have to do it for him. Just help me." Jazz wanted to argue, but there was no consoling the look in Sam's eyes.

Without another word of argument, Jazz snatched the Necronomicon from the ground, gently placed it against Sam's chest, and knelt to lift the younger girl up in her arms, cradling her carefully. Sam winced in pain, though her grip never loosened on the book. A glance around revealed that Buttercup was kneeling beside Blossom, who was lying still on the soft grass. The Possibles were gathered around Kim, who was still recovering a distance away. Starfire had wandered back toward the mountain, kneeling beside the body of her friend and leader, who was lying against the rocks, though Jazz could see his breath coming in short, ragged gasps.

"If we don't stop her…" Sam gulped. "The whole world will be this… a hundred times worse."

"Let's do it then." Jazz looked down at Sam. "Let's find Danny, and help him stop this once and for all."

* * *

The magma deep inside the volcano was swirling around them, intangible to the touch as Danny and Dani plummeted through the swirling liquid, each trying to get hold of the other in a vicious assault. Danny's fists tightened around his opponent's throat at last and he brought one leg up, slamming it into her stomach. Dani hurdled back through the mountain, but just as quickly came back with a shriek.

Danny's glowing energy bounced her back, but she whirled around and came back yet again. Danny blocked this one as well, then launched an assault of his own with his fists glowing. But Dani knocked his blows aside with a wave of her arms, and soon they were both whirling through the volcanic magma, bouncing off of each other's strikes and trying to get the upper hand.

Danny whirled suddenly as her dark half came around with a vicious kick. His arm snapped across her knee, his glowing rainbow energy snapping into her leg like a spike driven by a hammer. Dani screamed and whirled to the side, and Danny launched after her, but the girl suddenly barked out a laugh and spun around to meet her assault, grabbing her wrists as Danny's charge sent them both flying through the volcano.

They emerged from the volcano moving at full speed, Danny's energy leaving a rainbow trail across the dark night sky as they sped out across Townsville. Dani's hands pushed themselves inward, her dark claws reaching desperate to crush her, but Danny brought one leg up again and with a flash of energy and a vicious kick, then Dani hurtling down toward a nearby building.

Dani's body plunged through the walls with a thunderous crash that made the Earth quake when her body hit the ground. Danny thought for a moment he had the upper hand, but within moments a piece of the roof was ripped free and sent hurtling through the night sky. Danny's eyes turned toward the ground quickly, as people began to emerge from their homes. If the roof kept going, it could kill someone when it came down.

Danny brought one hand up as a field of light spread around his body. As the roof touched the outer edge, it began to dissolve, wasting into nothing moments before it hit Danny. But the dark ghost plunged through the field without effect, slamming into him with her shoulder to knock him off balance then bringing one fist around in a vicious uppercut. Danny swore he could feel his neck about to come off of his body as he flipped back through the air.

He didn't even have time to right himself before Dani was on him, streaking up over his head in a flash of white light and slamming a fist into his back. Danny screamed in pain as he plummeted through the sky. The sound of the Townsville's citizens shrieks as they ran to get out of his way was deafening, Danny's body came down on a nearby car, but he went intangible at the last second, phasing right through it into the ground. He moved to fly back up, but Dani suddenly plunged into the rock with a hard blow.

Dani spun back through the ground, trying to regain his balance, focus the powers Danielle was feeding into him, but he didn't even have time to think. Dani's assault was merciless, and her fists were quickly sapping away Danny's strength with each blow. Suddenly Dani grabbed the front of his suit and yanked him close, grinning her fanged grin.

"For all your new power, you're still an insignificant insect compared to me!" She whirled, planting a kick right into his chest strong enough to send him hurtling out of the ground, his body flailing through the sky.

His eyes closed in pain as he felt himself flying through the air, desperately reaching out with his mind as his lips spoke in a pained whisper. "Danielle… help me…"

* * *

Danielle groaned and fell to her knees on the small patch of land floating in the ever-swirling energy of Eternity. She could feel the power rushing through her spirit, overflowing its boundaries and streaming into Danny fighting on the outside. Her body was tense with the pain of it ripping through her, like a hundred lightning-strikes at once. But it still wasn't enough.

"I can't…" Dani grunted through a sob as she tried to focus more power, but she couldn't get hold of it. "I can't do any more Danny. I'm sorry, I can't… I just can't…"

"Danielle." Danielle opened her eyes with a sniffle and turned her glowing eyes upward to see Tucker standing beside her. "If you need help, all you have to do is say so." He gave her a soft smile and reached down to take her hand. Within seconds his own eyes were glowing as the energy of Eternity began to flow through him.

Danielle turned the other way when she felt someone take her other hand. She looked up into Valerie's eyes, shining with kindness for a moment before they too began to shine with coalescing light. Danielle's gaze swept in front of her as more friends emerged from the depths of Eternity. Ember McLain took Tucker's second hand, while Johnny and Kitty chained out from Valerie's. Others emerged as well, people from Danny's past who came together along the chain, one by one beginning to siphon the energy around them, pumping it into Danielle in a controlled wave so intense her hair spread upward and exploded in a shower of coalescing light.

"Danny…" Danielle said softly. "Let this be enough."

* * *

"There he is!" Jazz screamed from the passenger's seat of a small car they had borrowed to pursue Danny in his flight across Townsville. Maddie was driving, while Sam was lying in the backseat, muttering to herself in a low, muted voice. "We have to get to him! Quickly!"

"Make sure your seatbelt is securely fastened sweetie. We're burning rubber!" Maddie's foot slammed down in the gas pedal, sending the car lurching forward like a cat that just spotted a mouse sandwich. The car squealed loudly through the streets, around corners and blazing through empty intersections in hot pursuit of the flying figured. Jazz's eyes went wide suddenly, and her heart skipped a beat.

"No! Danny!" Jazz screamed as a streak of white light slammed into his glowing body, sending him hurtling down toward the street.

Danny's body slammed into the hood of a car along the street with the sound of crunching metal echoing in his ears. A car alarm blared instantly, and the warning lights on the front began to flash. He groaned and tried to move, but his body was shuddering and looked weak. He collapsed back against the broken steel with his breath coming in deep, pained gasps.

Jazz whirled around in her seat. "Sam, it's time! Are you ready?"

Sam nodded, clutching the book in her arms. "I'm ready." Jazz jumped out of the car and rushed to the back, yanking the door open for her. Jazz and Maddie both reached into the car for her, grabbing her and pulling her out onto the street. There were tears of pain running down Sam's cheeks, and her legs were shaking so bad she didn't have a prayer of standing on her own. But she remained upright regardless as she lifted the book in front of her and looked down at its pages.

"Enough games." Jazz's gaze turned upward when she heard a feminine voice speaking in a dark hiss. "Prepare for death!" Dani flung herself toward the totaled car in a flash of white light, moving so fast Jazz could barely track her through the sky. The light came down right on top of Danny, but before it could strike Danny's body exploded in a flash of rainbow light. Dani howled in anger as she was flung back into the sky.

The light floated up from the car, slowly sinking back into Danny's form. The coalescing rainbow of light was running through his formerly-ghost-white hair, pulsing down his body like an electrical current that grew only fiercer as he floated up from the hood. He raised his hands over his head, gathering a massive ball of energy in his palms as he faced the dark ghost.

"Enough games." Danny's voice echoed from the light. "This ends now!" The blast erupted from Danny's hand, striking the dark ghost before she could even think of blinking. Her body hurdled back through the air, but in a flash of light Danny appeared in her flight path, slamming one fist into her face to knock her back toward the ground. Danny's hands flashed with light and a powerful beam reached his dark half before it even touched the ground, slamming into her and driving her deep into the ground. The shockwave from the impact nearly knocked Jazz, Maddie, and Sam off their feet.

Dani pulled herself up to the street out of the crater, but she didn't have time to catch her breath before Danny slammed his fist into the back of her head, grabbing hold of it and driving her face into the pavement. He yanked her back up and did it several more times, howling in anger until at last he stopped and lifted her into the air, panting.

Dani laughed softly, despite the pain she had to be in. "Attack me all you will… the Chemical… makes me immortal."

"Think again!" Jazz shouted. Danny and Dani both turned toward them in surprise. "Now, Sam!"

"Begahno, murishipa, totaray!" Sam screamed and flung one hand forward. Black light flashed from the book, surging through her body before arching from her outstretched hand.

Danny shoved his dark ghostly side forward and leapt back, floating into the air as the energy approached. Dani tried to flee, but the energy slammed into her stomach, ripping through her body. A horrendous scream echoed through the night, her body convulsing with the force of the power. Spectral energy poured out of her body, glowing green in the otherwise dark night. Dani's body fell to the ground like a rag doll as the ghost floated into the air, still trying to run, but the essence was being chipped away by the energy.

"N-no!" The dark ghost screamed his blood red eyes flaring in desperation. "I am power! I am immortal!"

"You are finished!" Danny floated up beside the ghost. "Now shut up and die already!"

"No! NNNOOOOOOOOOO!" The ghost screamed one last time, its fading hand reaching toward the sky as the black energy suddenly pulsed. His ghostly body suddenly ripped apart and drifted into the sky, becoming less cohesive by the second until, at last, it faded completely into the night.

"That's it…" Jazz said softly, as if afraid speaking too loud would bring the ghost back to life. "It's over…"

"Sam! That was awesome!" Danny floated through the air to land in front of them, his body still glowing with coalescing light. "You used magic! It was…" He trailed off, realizing at last that something was wrong. "Sam…?"

"Ugh…" The Necronomicon fell to the street from her limp hands before Sam began to fall backward. Jazz and Maddie didn't have time to catch her before Danny was there, holding her cradled in both arms. "I'm… glad to see you, Danny…"

"Sam? What's wrong? Sam!"

Sam smiled and coughed, a trickle of blood leaking from her mouth, down her chest and to her shirt. "Kinda hurts…"

Danny's eyes grew wide and frantic as he looked up and down her body, then stared into her eyes. "Oh God… Sam, no, you can't. We're completely free now! I'm back, the ghost is gone… everything can be as it should be."

"Maybe some things… aren't meant to be." Sam coughed again, then clutched her stomach in pain and doubled over in his arms.

"I won't accept that. I can't." Danny gulped, then looked down at one hand. "Danielle, please, don't fail me now."

"Danny, what're you… ugh!" Sam gasped when he pushed his hand into her body, phasing it intangibly into her stomach. The energy of Eternity began to rip through her body, sending her into convulsions.

"Hold on Sam, just hold on." Danny's free arm held her cheek tightly against his chest, trying to keep her from moving too much. "I won't let you go. Not now. Not after everything that's happened, and everything you've done for me."

Sam grunted in pain, then threw her head back and let out a scream. Danny could feel it, the energy inside her, in tune with that of Eternity. He could even feel her soul lodged in her body, though it was struggling to break free. He held it in at the same time as he forced power of Eternity to run through her body, setting it back to the way it should be. He hated to hear her scream, but there was no other way.

"No! Not now!" Danny gasped as the energy began to fade to darkness, slowly vanishing from Sam's body. "Danielle, wait, I still need it! Danielle!" Danny looked frantically around, then gulped and forced himself to look down at his wife. He hadn't been finished… but there was still a chance he'd done enough.

Sam looked tired and frazzled, but her breath was now deep and steady as she stared up into his eyes. "So much… to say…" she whispered softly.

"You don't have to. I already know it all." Danny smiled and ran one hand across her cheek. Nothing more needed to be said, so their lips met in a gentle kiss that confirmed the rest of their lives together. Lives that would last for a long time to come.

* * *

_It's hard to believe it's over now. The last evil ghost, my dark side, is gone. But still, it doesn't feel like anything has truly ended._

Buttercup approached the Townsville shoreline, walking on foot despite having her full powers at her disposal. In her arms she carried the body of her pink-clad sister, whose eyes had closed hours ago, to never again open. The tainted Chemical X had taken its toll, as Blossom had known it would. Buttercup wanted to curse her for throwing her life away, but she found herself unable. So instead, she floated over the water, and let Blossom's body gently slide down onto the waves, to sink down into the ocean's depths.

Buttercup reached into her pocket then and withdrew the vial of Antidote X. With it, she could regain her mortal life. Lose her powers, and live out the rest of her days as a normal person. She didn't hesitate for even a moment before she brought it back and hurled it out across the ocean.

_So many people had converged to help me, to help the world, just because they were asked to. Some weren't even asked, they just did it because it needed to be done._

Circuits kicked into motion and electricity began to run through a series of internal batteries, sparking a systems check that, at last, allowed him to awaken from what felt like a long sleep. Cyborg's eyes opened to see people standing over him in the medical wing of Titans Tower, looking bruised and battered, and holding each other for support. The worst of it was that Starfire's left arm was in a thick cast.

His gaze swept over them, then turned to focus on Robin. The boy wonder gave him a soft smile and held out one hand. "Welcome back."

_It made me think about my own reasons. I've always fought to protect those I love… but after seeing these heroes doing what they do, it makes me wonder. Have I been wasting my powers only on myself?_

The front lock clicked open and Kim Possible stepped forward into her living room with her family close behind her. She felt sore, irritated, and tired after two long, sleepless nights. But her spirits lifted instantly when a small pink animal leapt from the living room sofa to perch on her shoulder, giving her cheek a big, firm hug. Rufus' presence could only mean one thing.

"K.P.!" Ron leapt up from the couch and rushed around it toward her with a look of concern on his face. "The news reports, they were-" He was cut off when Kim tackled him in a tight hug, burying her face in his chest. She didn't want to talk… she just wanted his arms around her.

_With these new powers as a free floating spirit, I could do so much good. And I promise, I will. But there are other benefits to this new state of being…_

The endlessly swirling essence of Eternity continued like it always did while Dani and the others discussed, briefly, the events that had been transpiring on Earth. It was tough for Danielle to understand everything that had happened, let alone to explain it all. Thankfully, she didn't have to. Several hours after the flow of energy had ended, Danny suddenly materialized before them with a broad smile on his face.

"Danny!" Danielle rushed toward him, grinning madly. "It worked! We did it!"

"Yeah!" Danny grinned and wrapped her up in a tight hug. "Thank you so much. All of you." Danny released the hug and climbed to his feet, looking around at all of those gathered around. "And it looks like, from now on, I'll be able to come visit you any time I want to."

"Awesome!" Tucker walked up to him. "It feels like forever since I've had someone to pal around with."

Valerie approached them as well with her hands on her hips and a smile on her face. "The surprises just keep coming with you, Danny."

"Great, you can come to my next concert." Ember grinned.

"Are you sure you can't bring your sister too?" Johnny asked hopefully, earning a resounding smack from Kitty.

"And you are welcome here, Danny Phantom. With open arms." The voice from before spoke, to the surprise of everyone present. They whirled around until they spotted the colors of Eternity coming together nearby, forming a steadier pattern. It was a little girl who looked somewhat familiar, though she wore a small blue dress and had blonde pigtails instead of a green dress and black hair.

Danny chuckled in disbelief. "You're one of the Powerpuff Girls, aren't you?"

The girl smiled and curtsied, letting out a cute giggle. "Bubbles is the name!"

"Does this mean you're God or something? Your sisters acted like you died." Danny asked.

"How I got here is a long story that doesn't matter anymore." Bubbles smiled. "What matters is your future. And I want you to promise to enjoy it, as long as it lasts. Life is a gift that is not to be wasted."

"I promise." Danny smiled and turned back to the others. "And I promise I'll come visit you all too. As often as I can."

"We'll be here waiting for you, Danny." Danielle wrapped her arms around his waist one more time in a tight hug, then let him go so he could turn to leave. He couldn't stop himself from smiling however hard he tried. It seemed unreal for everything to turn out so perfect… there were no more concerns, no more threats. Just a future free of trouble or complications.

* * *

Paulina approached Casper high school for the first time several days after the incidents. She was clutching her books tightly in her arms, unused to feeling so insecure. It seemed like the atmosphere in the school had changed since she got back. Her parents had been glad to see her, but whenever she ran into one of her old posse, it was like they ignored her. Had they just moved on? She didn't have anything left now…

She came to an abrupt stop when she spotted Star pulling her books out of her locker. It occurred to her to turn the other way, or try to rush past, but before she could decide Star closed her locker and turned. A gasp leapt from her throat and her books clattered to the floor when their eyes met.

"Paulina… you're back." Star smiled. "The news has been talking about you all week."

"Star…" Paulina looked down. "I'm… sorry." She looked up into her old friend's eyes. Star blinked, but didn't respond. "You don't have to say anything, but… I am." Paulina moved to walk away beside her, her arms clutching her books like a security blanket.

She squeaked in surprise when Star's arms wrapped around her from the side, engulfing her in a tight hug. "Apology accepted, Paulina. We'll catch up after school, okay?" Star smiled.

"S… sure." Paulina smiled back nervously. Star grinned, then patted her back and turned to rush on toward her class. The hallways was now empty, since all of the other students had already rushed to their classes as well. "Did you hear that? Someone here does still accept me."

**I'm happy for you, Paulina.** A voice spoke into her mind. As Paulina watched, tendrils of black energy emerged from her body, sliding out of her chest and into her arms. Paulina cradled the shadow in them. Her green eyes were dim and her essence was swirling weakly in the air. "I mean… mother."

"Don't worry, Mange. It's okay." Paulina squeezed the shadow against her chest, smiling. "I forgive you. And I'll make sure you get all better." Her hands stroked the shadow against her chest. Mange closed her eyes and nestled against her like a lost child, confused about her place in the world. Paulina swore to herself to see her recover and turn over a new leaf… as Paulina herself now planned to. The future was bright for the girl and her child shadow.

END SEASON ONE

More heroes, more villains, more action, more humor, and a battle that will rock the cosmos to its very foundation. Haunted Legacies: Season Two coming soon.


	21. Season 2 Preview

Friday, August 31 2007 in the Danny Phantom section, the legacy continues. More laughs, more drama, more adventure, more romance, and so many heroes you wouldn't believe me if I listed them all. Haunted Legacies: Season 2 is coming.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

The sky was clear and the whistling of the wind through the grass on the small hill outside of town was met with the blare of trumpets shouting to the heavens. The crowd seated on lawn chairs spread across the grass in neat rows and lines watched as the small parade of students in black robes marched single-file toward the front of the gathering. Cheers erupted from parents and families as each reached the principal of Casper High School to receive their ticket to the rest of their life.

"Dash Baxter," The principal called. The entire crowd rose to its feet around Sam, Danny, and Star as the massive boy walked up the steps to the podium, waving as if to a crowd of adoring fans.

Sam leaned over to whisper conspiratorially to her friends. "Yeah, I'm glad to see him gone too." Danny and Star hid their chuckles behind their hands.

They watched the procession of former students making their way around and then back to their seats in the front rows. The line of students crept on until at last, Danny heard a good reason to cheer.

"Jasmine Fenton." Danny, Sam, and Star all leapt to their feet, clapping their hands together. To Danny's surprise, most of those seated in the audience rose to their feet as the red-headed Fenton girl approached the Principal with a broad, uncontained grin on her lips. After she retrieved her diploma and shook her principal's hand, she turned to the crowd and pumped the diploma into the air, causing the crowd to roar even louder.

Danny heard a sniffle from behind, and turned to comfort his mother, but instead saw his father hunched over nearly in tears. "Our baby girl is growing up so fast."

"No Jack." Maddie patted her husband's shoulder with an understanding smile. "She's growing no more, she's a woman now. Soon she'll be off on her own to college. Oh…" She sniffled and wiped a tear from her eye. "I'm so proud… aren't you proud Danny?"

"Huh?" Danny was snapped back to reality after drifting off for a moment, realizing his mom was looking right at him. "Oh, yeah." Danny turned to face forward again, watching his sister skip merrily from the podium down toward her seat. "Proud…" He wanted to feel it, but it was something else that suddenly filled his heart to the brim.

After the ceremony had passed the families and graduates stood to find one another, and Jazz came charging up to them, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet as she walked, making her thick black robes bounce around her ankles. "I did it! I did it! 4.0! Harvard here I come! Yyyeeeeee!" She squealed in excitement and wrapped her mother in a tight hug.

"I'm so proud of you, sweetie!" Maddie grinned wildly and clutched her daughter close to her.

"Yeah, great going, Jazz." Star grinned and hugged her from the side, since Maddie still had her from the front.

"Congratulations," Sam added with a more subdued smile.

Danny thought to say something, but he couldn't make himself speak.

"We just HAVE to celebrate. We have to." Maddie finally let her daughter go. "We should all go out for a fancy dinner as a family."

"Can Star come?" Jazz draped one arm around her best friend's shoulders.

"Of course." Maddie nodded.

"There's only one meal fit for a time like this." Jack waved his finger in the air, signaling that what he was saying was important. "The thickest, juiciest, bloodiest steaks money can buy! Come on, I know just the place!" Jack grabbed Jazz and Star to carry them back toward the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle like a pair of footballs. Danny watched Maddie follow after them with a look of concern on her face, feeling strangely numb with the proceedings.

Suddenly a hand touched his arm, drawing his attention to Sam, who was looking at him with worried eyes and a gentle smile. "You okay, Danny?" Her arm moved down to twine her fingers with his. The shining gold wedding ring on her finger pressed against his hand, reminding him, as always, that they could share anything.

Danny shook his head, finally finding the will to say two words. "She's leaving."

Episode 20: Precious Jasmine


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